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J 



MANY LAN 




MANY PEOPLE. 



With One Hundred and Forty-Seven Illustrations. 



^^'■i. 




PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
I 880. 






CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE PLANT IN PERU .... 5 

SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS 54 

THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA 66 

SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL: 

I. The Count de Beauvoir in China 118 

II. Batavia 130 

III. Bangkok 141 

AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS 149 

A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS . 173 

IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER ..... 191 

WITH THE COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA 221 

CONSTANTINOPLE 233 

WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE '"% . . . 241 



iUN 12 im 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by 

J. B. LIPBIJsTGOTT & CO., 
In the office of the Libr^igTrf bf Congress, at Washington. 




Searching for the Quinine-plant in Peru. 



I^^I^/T IFIiE^ST. 



A SOUTH AMERICAN storm was 
descending like a deluge, and the 
night was closing in — a mid-winter night, 
for the month was July. A man wrapped 
in a cloak streaming with wet pushed 
his way through a house in a Peruvian 
city, until he came to a bed-chamber 
where a solitary traveler was sitting 
among his note-books. 

The city was the capital of Inca civ- 
ilization — Cuzco, the Rome of the New 
World. The visitor was Don Juan Sanz 
of Santo Domingo, a prominent citizen 
of that place. And the Marco Polo was 
Mr. Paul Marcoy. 

" What has got into your head to 
come out in such weather?" frankly 
asked the latter. 

" I have something serious to discuss 
with you," answered Don Juan, as he 
took off his water-clogged mantle and 
seated himself near the table. " A bear- 
er of despatches has just come to me 
from Lima. He is bound to return to- 
morrow with the answer which I am 
asked to make, and, before deciding on 
that answer, it has occurred to me to see 
you, to talk with you, and, in a word, to 
ask a service." 

" Shall it be a loan of a few hundred 
thousand piastres for one of your spec- 
ulations ?" 

" Do not joke : I am talking quite se- 



riously. The service I have to ask will 
only demand a little of your good- nature 
and the sacrifice of a few months of your 
time." 

" A few months ! You are too modest. 
And what shall I be doing during those 
few months ?" 

"Nothing but what is very simple. 
You shall walk about during a part of 
the day ; you will observe ; you will 
take notes ; you will replenish your 
sketch-book. Besides this, you shall eat 
and drink when you like, you shall rest 
when you are lazy, and when evening 
comes you shall sleep if you feel like it." 

" But that is precisely what I am do- 
ing here." 

" No doubt. I only imagined that in 
order to render me a good turn you 
would be willing to do it elsewhere." 

" Elsewhere ? What is the locality of 
' elsewhere' ? Come, let me see what is 
asked of me. What is all this about ?" 

" It is about filling a vacancy in one 
of my enterprises." 

"You forget that I know nothing of 
commerce." 

"Nor is it a commercial operation I 
ask you to take part in, but simply some 
preliminaries which I hope will lead to 
one. I must explain. You are aware 
that I have contributed a little influence 
and a deal of money to the job of put- 

5 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



ting Senor Menendez at the head of this 
nation. He is now joyfully paying his 
debts with the gold out of the treasury, 
and he owes that felicity in part to me. 
As I am not the man to allow a benefit 
to be forgotten, I have asked him plain- 
ly to do me a favor in return. I want 
the exclusive privilege of commerce in 
the cinchona trees in our eastern valleys. 
They say the forests are full of them. 
What do you see in it ?" 

"It is the kind of thing that either 
makes a Croesus of a man or leaves him 
flat on his back. But what did the 
president reply ?" 

"That I should have the privilege just 
as soon as I should discover the trees. 
He exacts one thing, however. There 
must be an ' interviewer.' The fame of 
the cinchona-discovery must be worked 
up in the newspapers at Lima. The 
world must ring with those trees — as 
soon as we find them. Sentimental and 
humorous fever-stories in the feuilletons 
— a series of botanical treatises, with the 
latitude and longitude of the habitat, in 
the official paper. He writes me that 
he wishes to have the nations of the 
world in general, and the South Amer- 
ican republics in particular, imbibe a 
lively idea of the resources of the 
country." 

"The South American frog still swell- 
ing up to equal the North American ox !" 

"Under the circumstances I have 
thought of giving you an honorable 
place in the expedition. You shall 
sketch and botanize as you like. And 
you may write it up. Verarevenga, at 
Lima, shall translate you." 

"Very well. I see something prom- 
ising in your offer. I will give it my 
ripe consideration, and you shall have 
my answer in a week." 

" I shall hardly wait a week. If you 
make up your mind to go, it must be 
done while I am folding this cigarette. 
My despatch-bearer is waiting to go back 
with my answer to Senor Menendez." 

" You will certainly accord me a couple 
of hours for reflection ?" 

"Not a couple of minutes. I have 
others to see. Perez, the retired colonel 
Manuel Perez, will go. And I must de- 



cide upon a trustworthy agent to send to 
Bolivia after the bark-searchers. Once 
for all : do you accept my proposition ?" 

"Well, yes, since there is nothing else 
to be done." Mr. Marcoy looked hastily 
at his gun, his saddle-bags and his ward- 
robe. "What is the hour of starting ?" 

" Oh, you will not start for three weeks. 
It will take that long to bring up my 
BoHvians. I am told the bark-hunters 
of Sorata are very skillful, and I intend 
to draft five or six of them." 

"Take your time, Don Juan. And 
now, good-night. Look in, if you hap- 
pen to be passing, in three weeks, and 
you will find me with my spurs on, sit- 
ting on a saddle." 

Don Juan Sanz de Santo Domingo 
grasped the hand of the traveler and 
vanished into the driving storm. He 
was used to it, for it rains in Cuzco, say 
the Peruvians, thirteen months out of 
the year. He was not, however, a native 
of the town. The enterprising and the 
prosperous are not born in a mountain- 
city full of Indians. Alighting in Amer- 
ica from his native Spain while still a 
youth, he had hunted fortune through a 
number of places on the Pacific coast 
and the sierras, and had finally settled 
at Cuzco. In this remote spot he ex- 
hibited to the priests and the idlers the 
phenomenon of a merchant and a man 
of the world. He carried on his affairs 
with a deal of noise, attacked the most 
■hazardous enterprises, incurred the most 
desperate obligations, and threaded the 
old Inca routes with his caravans and his 
emissaries. He was fond of interfering 
with politics, and was never more agree- 
ably occupied than in backing Juan Jose 
against Juan Pedro, supporting with his 
funds the intrigues of a presidential can- 
didate and preparing the downfall of the 
president nominated by the nation. To 
fix the public eye upon himself, and 
teach the echoes the sound of his name, 
appeared to be the object of this bold 
Andalusian, whose style and features 
betrayed more of the Moorish part of 
his ancestry than of the Spanish. 

He had established himself in a large 
house on the street of Las Heladerias, 
where the historian Garcilaso de la Vega 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN FERP 7 

was born about the end of the fifteenth 1 of Cuzco, it had for its basement old 
century. Like the majority of the houses l walls of the time of the Incas : these 




old foundations are never colored or da'es from the time of Pizarro, who, to 
whitewashed, while the rest is always economize time and workmanship, con- 
daubed with tinted lime. This speciality tented himself with discrowning the old 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



edifices and erecting new stories upon 
the old basements. Thanks to this cir- 
cumstance — a happy one for archaeolo- 
gists — the city is only transformed, as it 
were, down to the middle of the body, 
the upper half being Catholic and mod- 
ern, the lower heathen and antique. It 
was composed, like most of the better 
houses of South America, of a large 
ground-floor room for stores, carriages 
or magazine, and a second story : in- 
teriorly, it developed an oblong court- 
yard, arched on three sides, and sup- 
porting on these arches a wooden gal- 
lery which communicated with the bed- 
rooms. The arches were full of noisy 
bird-cages and the court of sprawling 
weeds, which the orders of the master 
saved from disturbance. The mansion, 
by its peculiar Bohemian air and its 
festal lights visible long after midnight, 
was a part of the advertisement of its 
owner. The creditors of Don Juan, the 
lawyers and professors, gave it out as 
immoral and revolutionary. Another 
portion of the citizens, the aristocrats, 
the higher functionaries, and certain 
members of the clergy who appreciated 
costly wine and a varied bill of fare, 
sang its praises in full chorus, and con- 
ferred upon it, for reasons not worth 
searching out, the name of the Casa de 
Austria. 

During the three weeks agreed upon 
for time of grace the master of the House 
of Austria bestirred himself in laying up 
provisions of a variety which indicated 
on his part a profound knowledge of the 
human stomach. Nothing was forgot- 
ten in this gastronomic museum — beef 
cut in strips, smoked mutton, dried and 
root vegetables, rice, sugar, chocolate, 
coffee, to say nothing of biscuits and 
conserves; 'then, to lubricate the masti- 
cation of these arid viands, wines of 
Spain and France, or so denominated, 
Jamaica rum brought from Abancay, 
and Martinique ab^nthe made up by a 
certain old lady in Cuzco. Besides these 
commodities, the liveher importations of 
mules, mozos and mule-drivers filled the 
court, and reduced its vegetable carpet 
to bareness. But what mattered to the 
proprietor of the House of Austria the 



loss of a few tufts of herbage, when he 
saw himself in fancy the proprietor of 
entire forests of trees whose bark was 
gold? 

The arrival from the Bolivian frontier 
of half a dozen bark-searchers, or casca- 
rilleros — flat-faced, sepia-colored, stolid 
Indians — in charge of a white leader, or 
examinador de cascarilla, brought all 
the activity to a focus, and precipitated 
the departure. Not the least of these 
preparations were the feasts of cere- 
mony. It were too long to enumerate 
the lunches, collations and dinners 
which were offered during the last sev- 
en days by the chief of the House of 
Austria to his friends and acquaintances. 
It is enough to observe that at the last 
dinner of all, two priors of the monastery, 
whose names charity excuses us from 
giving, passed the night under the table, 
while the chief of police, proudly ex- 
posed on top of it, in an arm-chair sur- 
rounded with candles, and crowned with 
preserved fruits from the dessert, slept 
soundly, oblivious of the dance which 
the other guests conducted around him, 
his secretary at their head. 

At last came the day of departure. 
The fact of the hour of six having been 
fixed for the start was a sufficient rea- 
son, in Peru, for a delay which was only 
brought to a close at high noon. At 
twelve o'clock, as all the timepieces in 
the city were sounding, the master of 
the House of Austria put foot in stirrup 
to place himself at the head of his cav- 
alcade and conduct it a suitable distance 
out of town. As the troop of men, 
horses and mules clattered through the 
streets, the inhabitants of Cuzco, accord- 
ing to their hostility or sympathy with 
Don Juan, saluted the caravan with 
laughter or with cheers. In half an hour 
the last house of the suburb of the Re- 
coleta was passed. A vast plain, sown 
with white houses, gardens and fields, 
stretched before the travelers toward the 
mountains. The Spaniards, at the time 
of the conquest, found this expanse peo- 
pled with forty Inca villages, the satel- 
lites of the great city of Cuzco. 

The last appurtenance of the city of 
Cuzco was the Tree of Farewells (Cha- 



\, 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



chacu-mayoc), whose perforated trunk 
and sparse foliage soon greeted the ex- 
cursionists on a slope at the side of the 
road. No citizen can undertake a jour- 
ney without an impressive leave-taking, 
performed under this tree, with the rela- 
tions and friends who have so far borne 

him company. Don 

Juan Sanz de Santo 
Domingo was not the ' 
man to omit so noble ; 
a ceremony, wherein 
pathos might be ad- 
vantageously joined 
with splendor. A ' 
whole case of cham- f 
pagne, at six dollars ' 
the bottle, was dissi- 
pated on the occa- 
sion, leaving only 
boards, straw and 
corks beneath the 
historic tree, planted 
by the fifth Inca, Ca- 
pacYupanqui. Santo 
Domingo drank his 
glass with a graceful 
toast to the travelers 
he was so soon to dis- 
miss. Colonel Perez 
emptied his with dis- 
dainful gravity, in- 
stantly making signal 
for another. Mar- 
coy, alone perhaps 
of all the company, 
gave a thought, as 
he lifted on high the 
beaded nectar, to the 
past splendors and 
hapless fall of the city 
whose clock - towers 
flashed on the hori- 
zon. 

It is not necessary 
here to supplement 
the many interesting accounts of Cuzco 
that have now and again been publish- 
ed. Founded in the eleventh century 
by Manco Capac, its walls, containing 
a measure of thirty -three thousand 
square yards, exist at the present time, 
and form the mould into which the 
modern city is poured, similar in plan 



and extent to the Inca capital. It is to- 
day the ordinary, rich, slatternly, priest- 
infested town of Spanish America, with 
a cathedral fabulously wealthy, fifteen 
churches and thirteen convents and re- 
ligious retreats. 

Nor is it necessary to tell again of the 




HE FOUND HIMSELF IN THE ILLUMINATED CHAl'EL OF 
LAURAMARCA." — P. 12. 



fabulous avatar of Manco Capac as he 
springs like a Neptune from the waters 
of Lake Titicaca, attended by his divine 
sister, Mama Ocllo, and follows the 
pointings of his golden rod to the centre 
of the plain of Cuzco. The splendors 
of Inca civilization, magnified by reflec- 
tion as they pass into the tales of the 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



Spanisli historian, have left few visible 
remn?iits except an old fortress or two, 
some walls of monstrous stones, and 
relics of pottery which adorn the parlors 
of the rich merchants of the town. 

" It is time to move," at last said Santo 
Domingo, shattering his glass against 
the wrinkled bark of the tree. " It is 
a long road to Huaro, and we shall 
be puzzled to make it before daylight 
fails." 

In fact, the evening prayer, the An- 
gelas, was sounding from the village 
church as the cavalcade entered Huaro, 
a hamlet of nine hundred inhabitants 
at the foot of the sierras. The travelers 
instantly reined up their steeds and lifted 
their hats, and listened, in a silence so 
profound that the buzz of an insect would 
have been audible, to the conclusion of 
the oracion. When the bell had stop- 
ped vibrating in the square tower of the 
little church, and the llamas in the door- 
yards had ceased to prick up their sen- 
sitive ears at the sound, the caravan 
recovered its hats : each one bowed 
gravely to his neighbor in Spanish fash- 
ion, and exchanged with him the cus- 
tomary salute, "Buenas noches, sehor." 

In the whole of Spanish America, but 
especially in the larger towns, the mo- 
ment of the Angelus has a strange at- 
traction for the stranger. As the usage 
requires every one to halt, no matter 
where he may be, at the first stroke of 
the bell, to interrupt his conversation 
however important, and listen without 
stirring until the conclusion of the chime, 
the singularity of a whole population 
surprised in a moment as it comes and 
goes, held in a state of petrifaction, and 
paralyzed as if by an enchanter, may 
be imagined. On every side you see 
gestures interrupted, mouths half open- 
ed for the arrested remark, smiles oddly 
lingering or passing into an expression 
of prayer. You would fancy a nation 
of statues. A town in South America, 
at the tinkle of the Angelus, resembles 
the city in the Arabiati Nights whose 
inhabitants were turned into stones. 
The magician here is the bell-ringer. 
But hardly has the vibration ceased 
when a universal murmur arises from 



these thousands of oppressed lungs 
Hand meets hand, question seeks an- 
swer, conversations resume their course ; 
horses feel the loosened bridle and paw 
the ground ; dogs bark, babies cry, the 
fathers swear and the mothers chatter. 
The accidental turns thus given to 
conversation are many, and sometimes 
striking. Thus, on the present occasion, 
the never-satisfied patriot Perez happen- 
ed to have b«en conversing, at the en- 
trance of the village, on his favorite 
subject with the lawyer of Don Juan, 
who was accompanying the first stage of 
the excursion as a matter of politeness. 

"We are masters of the situation," 
the man of parchments was saying : 
"we can win the people, and we have 
possession of half the arms. At a given 
moment we march upon the palace, we 
demand the person of the incumbent — 
Ave Maria piirissirna" continued the 
lawyer, with a remnant of his severe ex- 
pression, as the first note of the bell of 
Huaro smote upon the air. When the 
last sound had expired, the revolutionist 
jerked his head with the quickness of a 
water-wagtail, and continued furiously 
the sentence interrupted five minutes 
before — "to be hung in the public 
square !" 

Passing with a hospitable inhabitant 
of Huaro a night that had some of the 
characteristics of an orgy, Don Juan 
and his train crossed the river betimes 
next day, and ascended their first moun- 
tain-pass. Vertigo, oppression and head- 
ache were the price paid by some of these 
inexperienced mountaineers for their in- 
itiation into the mysteries of the clouds. 
Recovering, however, before these un- 
pleasant symptoms were very distinctly 
pronounced, they found themselves, at 
the end of three hours, masters of the 
summit, and then began to dip into the 
great plain beyond, taking their course 
toward the south-south-east, in the di- 
rection of Lauramarca. Passing through 
the ever-mellowing temperatures of a 
descending plain, they found themselves, 
among the fresh scents of a circle of 
enormous farms, and entered the streets 
of the town amid the cheers and salutes 
of the inhabitants. 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



At Lauramarca, a town of some im- j richest department in the presidency of 
portance as a centre of agriculture — the ! Cuzco — -the explorers found, as every- 




where else, that the reputation of Don 
Juan had preceded him, and that his 
presence was the signal for a splendid 



manifestation. While the more vulgar 
part of the troop, however, attended the 
ball given in his honor by the principal 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



woolen-manufacturer of the place, and 
the more practical explored the old gold- 
and silver-mines of the neighborhood, 
Marcoy, artist and scribbler, betook him- 
self to a more pensive employment. 
Leaving the dance at its height, he stole 
out into the cool evening air, and bent 




'' THIS MAN, BAREFOOT AND RAGGED, WAS 
OF MARCAPATA." — P. I4. 

his Steps .toward a tall, simply-shaped 
building, whose roof-windows, stream- 
ing with hght, attracted his attention. 
A. latch in the wooden door gave him 
easy entrance. He found himself in the 
illuminated chapel of Lauramarca. The 
walls, entirely without ornament, were 
covered with a stucco mixed with glue 



from the cactus, which shone with the 
precise lustre of polished ivory. A life- 
sized image of the Virgin, carved in a 
white, translucent, alabaster-like stone 
from Verenguela, stood upon a cube of 
gray granite which served for altar. A 
multitude of candles, set upon the floor, 
pierced the pale tops 
of a forest of lilies. 
The perfume of these 
plants, warmed by 
the lights, filled the 
room to the point of 
enervation. The 
traveler could not 
recognize without a 
thrill of feeling the 
familiar odor of these 
flowers, brought by 
the Spanish colon- 
ists to the feet of the 
Andes, and now fill- 
ing their churches 
everywhere with a 
perfume that seems 
sacred to Rome and 
Italy. Between the 
odorous silence of 
this neglected chapel 
and the feast near 
by, where everybody 
had gone to drink 
and dance, the con- 
trast was so striking 
that the coldest mind 
would have been 
seized by it. 

The next chain to 
cross was that of the 
Andes of Avisca, 
the attainment of 
which cost the trav- 
elers several hours 
of hard climbing, for 
which their dissipa- 
tions overnight had 
but ill prepared them. However sleepy 
were the eyes that gazed upon the snow- 
capped summits, they could not but ex- 
pand with wonder at the spectacle of 
the two enormous peaks which formed 
the gateway of this new land of moun- 
tains, and rose into the pure air like 
two slender and immeasurable obelisks, 



THE GOBERNADOR 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



dwarfing the minor tops around them. 
These imposing giants, of well-defined 
quadrangular form, and smoothed over 
with bluish-colored ice, stood at each 
side of the pass as if they supported the 
sky. The Indians name them the Old^ 
Grandfather and Old Uncle — Ausargate 
and Tayangate. 

In this elevated 
region, where the 
strangers were sur- 
prised with every 
possible caprice of 
mountainous outline, 
the scientific spirit of 
the historiographer 
was attracted by a 
curious complication 
among the second- 
ary formations of the 
rock. \\.vi2js,2i nodus, 
or rocky knot, among 
the Avisca Andes, of 
the sort that elicits 
from the wiseacres 
of those regions the 
opinion that the veins 
of the rock are " tied 
up." This nodus 
was funnel-shaped, 
eight miles across, 
and seemed to be a 
dry crater emerging 
from the snow. 
Peaks of trachite, 
rough and jagged, 
stood up like black- 
ened fangs out of the unsullied white, 
forming a most pecuhar and impressive 
effect. Here too, out of the mouth of a 
beautiful crystal lake among the peaks, 
the party watched the issue of the river 
Paucartampu, an affluent, as they sup- 
posed, of the Ucayali, but, as the Eng- 
lish traveler Markham asserts, of the 
Madre de Dio — at any rate, one of the 
streams whose easterly-flowing courses 
prove to the traveler that he has crossed 
the watershed of the Andes, parted com- 
pany with the rivers flowing to the west- 
ern coast, and begun to trace the mean- 
ders of the feeders of the Amazon. 

The Andes we're now behind them, 
and the landscape closed around them 



to the north, the south and the west. 
Only the east lay open to their steps 
and retained, as the day closed, a re- 
flection of sunset at the rim of the sky. 
Pushing forward their weary beasts, the 
travelers made for their next stopping- 
place, Marcapata. The rills from the 




IS MY AMA DE LLAVES ' (HOUSEKEEPER), SAID THE 
PRIEST." — P. 14. 



summits began to gather volume and 
form considerable streams : the lichens 
of the snowy uplands were exchanged 
for bushes and trees. There was a twi- 
light vision of roofs and walls enclosed 
in the green of orchards and farms : 
then the night shut down as in an instant, 
and the valley filled up with fog. For 
a short time the footsteps of the beasts 
broke through the sheet of mist and the 
veil of silence, and then the cry of one 
of the muleteers was heard. The troop 
halted : a few straggling lights were seen 
and a huddled group of thatched roofs. 
The party were at Marcapata, the key 
of the valleys to the east, the point where 
they proposed to give up their horses and 



14 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



hire porters for the carriage of their pro- 
visions into the wilderness— the end, in 
fact, of their connection with the civil- 
ization of the coast. Here too, their 
patron and inspiring genius, the splen- 
did Don Juan Sanz de Santo Domingo, 
intended to bid them adieu. 

Although the mules and horses made 
sufficient jingle as the cavalcade entered 
the village, no one seemed to be dis- 
turbed by the intrusion. The muleteers 
therefore began to lift up their voices of 
Stentor, and call upon the people whose 
names they knew, at the same time 
striking with their wooden stirrups the 
doors past which they rode. At this 
racket a door opened, and an individ- 
ual, candle in hand, appeared. This 
man, barefoot and ragged, was the go- 
bernador of Marcapata. lie came up 
and asked if these might be the honor- 
able travelers who were expected at his 
humble village. Reassured on this point, 
he offered to guide the party at once to 
the house of the priest, who he assured 
them was much more commodiously 
lodged than himself. The intention was 
evident, but Don Juan, with cruel prompt- 
ness, relieved him of his inhospitable 
illusion. From the height of his saddle 
he read aloud the order of the prefect of 
Cuzco, written on paper stamped with 
the Peruvian arms, enjoining on him the 
care of the travelers and their beasts, 
and the performance of every duty that 
might further their object. 

The governor, quite crushed, humbly 
opened the door of his hut. The interior 
had the effect of completely relieving 
the travelers of all desire for the hos- 
pitality they had so frankly invoked. 
An unfurnished hole, riddled for the ad- 
mission of the winds, and containing for 
furniture a heap of dirty sheepskins, was 
ill the poor governor could offer them. 
The visitors hastily asked to be guided 
to the priest. 

This ecclesiastic inhabited a small 
house connected with the church. A 
discreet knock at the door was hazarded, 
which had two responses — the whine of 
a woman and the bark of a dog. The 
former asked with much bitterness who 
was there at that hour of the night. The 



hour was hardly seven. The governor 
himself undertook to respond. 

At the familiar voice the door was 
half opened, and a female head appear- 
ed : " Holy Virgin ! What are all those 
men here for ?" 

The inhospitality of this demand, set 
down to the account of feminine bash- 
fulness, was readily excused, and the 
governor, resting outside, sent the trav- 
elers in to find the priest. That worthy 
man, who was supping with two or three 
cats by his side, executed a sort of som- 
ersault, and received the self-introduction 
of Don Juan with his mouth half open 
and half full. The merchant explained 
the desire of the party for shelter, board 
and beds. 

The round visage of the pastor cloud- 
ed over. " I am poor, and very slender- 
ly lodged here," was all the unhappy 
man could say. Santo Domingo had in 
reserve, however, for the spiritual power 
an argument as powerful as that which 
had just so effectually tamed the tem- 
poral. "Your poverty afflicts me very 
much, my father," said he to the priest, 
"but it will be a far greater sorrow to his 
grace the bishop of Cuzco, who has sent 
me to your address with the notion that 
you might be able to serve me." 

"What!" cried the holy man, "our 
illustrious bishop has deigned to talk to 
you about me ? — me, who never saw him 
in my life !" 

The priest was assured that he was 
well known to his glorious superior, and 
that his amiable hospitality would be 
taken by the latter as a favor to himself. 
On this the poor man of prayer insisted 
that the whole party should enter and 
sup with him. " Pescua ! Pescua!" cried 
he. "It is my ama de Haves" (house- 
keeper), said the priest. The woman, 
frowning, entered for her instructions. 

In short, the party, by adroit manip- 
ulation of the governor and the padre, 
were able to lodge with sufficient com- 
fort. Half the gentlemen quartered 
themselves upon the Church, half upon 
the State, and the mozos and muleteers 
were distributed through tha- village. 

To this holy father the explorer ap- 
plied for aid in engaging the Indian 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



15 



porters who were to take the place of 
their beasts of burden. The relations 
of the good man with the aborigines 
were of a peaceful character, and were 



inspired by a rrutxim admirable for its 
breadth and laconism. "Do no harm 
to the Indian," said the curator of souls 
— "God's law forbids it — but take car 




" IMMEDIATELY BEGAN THE INSPECTION OF THE RECRUITS AT THE CHURCH DOOR." — P. I 7. 



CO do him no good, for he is a brute that 
is not worth the trouble." Under the 
influence of this moderate alliance the 
Indians were in the habit of coming to 
the church at service-time, not for wor- 



ship, but from curiosity and in the hope 
of occasional employment. 

The day after the arrival the priest 
was notified by Santo Domingo that he 
rould render a service by engaging the 



i6 



SEAKCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



Indians to remain after the mass: it I tended the church, and were surprised 
happened to be Sunday. The party at- | to hear, during an interval of the ob- 




servances, an address from the priest to 
the Indians, vi^ho were squatting rather 
than kneehng in the nave. He described 



the project of the strangers for an ex- 
ploration of the valley, intimated me 
duty which was expected of tlie nativv.s. 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-FLANT IN PERU. 



n 



and begged them to remain in the plaza 
after mass, instead of going off to get 
drunk and play at skittles. Mass over, 
the Indians, conformably to this order, 
assembled in the square and waited the 
pleasure of the travelers. The priest 
hurried off his sacerdotal robes, and 
was quickly among them. Immediately 
began the inspection of the recruits at 
the church door. Each individual, plant- 
ed square on both feet, broad-shouldered 
and bulbous of chest, was introduced by 
the sacred purveyor, who mentioned his 
name, took him up by the chin, and 
gave a list of his physical and moral 
qualities. The Indian for his part allow- 
ed himself to be punched, felt and turn- 
ed about with a sort of simple smile, 
rather proud than otherwise of this pub- 
lic recognition of his points. In this way 
the tale of assistants was quickly and 
advantageously made up. 

There was little more to do at Mar- 
capata. On the next morning, Don Juan, 
his lawyer and the eight or nine others 
who had formed the escort sprang into 
their saddles and set their faces toward 
the inclement mountains for a return to 
Cuzco. Of the party of bark-explorers 
there remained but three individuals. 
These were Manuel Perez, the former 



colonel in the Spanish army, of the 
Royal Alexander regiment, a resident 
of Cuzco, who retained enough of his 
old habits of vagabondage to wish to 
join the expedition ; the writer and artist, 
Mr. Paul Marcoy ; and the examinador 
of barks from Bolivia, who accompanied 
his band of bark-strippers or cascarille- 
ros. The remaining trio, in their lone- 
liness and desire for change of scene, 
would have departed immediately, with 
but slight adieux to the governor and the 
priest. But the Indian porters engaged 
at Marcapata exclaimed, with one accord 
and with a strong sense of insult, that 
they could never leave without a parting 
debauch with their friends. A night of 
unintermitted chicha and a morning of 
dismal reaction ensued on the part of 
these savage servitors. At length, ex- 
cited by a few buckets of water judicious- 
ly thrown over their heads, the Indians, 
with many farewells to their wives and 
comrades, prepared to start. They re- 
joined the chiefs of the party, who, their 
spurs laid aside and their saddles ex- 
changed for a light walking equipment, 
were impatiently summoning their at- 
tendance. 



IPJ^I^T SE002<riD. 



THE crystal peaks of the Andes were 
behind our explorers : before, were 
their eastward- stretching spurs and their 
eastward-falling rivers. On the moun- 
tain-flanks, as the last landmark of 
Christian civilization, nestled the village 
of Marcapata, whose square, thatched 
belfry faded gradually from sight, re- 
minding the travelers of the ghostly min- 
istrations of the padre and the secular 
protection of the gobernador. Neither 
priest nor edile would they encounter 
until their return to the same church- 
tower. Their patron, Don Juan Sanz 
de Santo Domingo, was already picking 
his way along the snowy defiles of the 
mountains to attain again his luxurious 
home in Cuzco. Behind the adventurers 
lay companionship and society — repre- 
sented by the dubious orgies of the 
House of Austria — and the security of 
civil government — represented by the 
mortal ennui of a Peruvian citv. Before 



them lay difficulties and perhaps dan- 
gers, but also at least variety, novelty 
and possible wealth. 

Colonel Perez, Marcoy and the ex- 
aminador retained their horses, and a 
couple of the mozos their mules, the 
remainder of the beasts being kept at 
livery in Marcapata, and the muleteers 
volunteering to accompany the troupe 
as far as Chile-Chile : at this point the 
bridle-path came to an end, and the 
gentlemen would have to dismount, ac- 
companying thenceforth their peons on 
a literal "footing" of equality. 

Two torrents which fall in perpendic- 
ular cataracts from the mountains, the 
Kellunu ("yellow water") and the Cca- 
chi (" salt"), run together at the distance 
of a league from their place of precipita- 
tion. They enclose in their approach 
the hill on which Marcapata is perched, 
and they form by their confluence the 
considerable river which our travelers 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



were about to trace, and which is called I the Spanish maps is termed the river of 
by the Indians Cconi ("warm"), but on I Marcapata. 




The first ford of the Cconi was passed 
just outside the town, at a point where 
the right bank of the river, growing 



steeper and steeper; became impractica- 
ble, and necessitated a crossing to the 
left. The ford allowed the peons to 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



»9 



stagger through at mid-leg on the un- 
even pavement afforded by the large 
pebbles of the bed. At this point the 
valley of the Cconi was seen stretching 
indefinitely outward toward the east, 
enclosed in two chains of conical peaks : 
their regular forms, running into each 
other at the middle of their height, 
clothed with interminable forests and 
bathed with light, melted regularly away 
into the perspective. Indian huts buried 
in gardens of the white lily which had 
seemed so beautiful in the chapel of 
Lauramarca, hedges of aloe menacing 
±e intruder with their millions of steely- 
looking swords, slender bamboos dain- 
tily rocking themselves over the water, 
and enormous curtains of creepers hang- 
ing from the hillsides and waving to the 
wind in vast breadths of green, were the 
decorations of this Peruvian paradise. 

The pretty lilies gradually disappear- 
ed, and the thatched cabins became 
more and more sparse, when from one 
of the latter, at a hundred paces from 
the caravan, issued a human figure. 
The man struck an attitude in the path- 
way of the travelers, his carbine on his 
shoulder, his fist on his hip and his nose 
saucily turned up in the air. Neither 
his Metamora-like posture nor his dress 
inspired confidence. 

" He is evidently waiting for us," re- 
marked Colonel Perez, an heroic yet pru- 
dent personage : "fortunately, it is broad 
day. I would not grant an interview to 
such a salteador (brigand) alone at night 
and in a desert." 

The salteador wore a low broad felt, 
on whose ample brim the rain and sun 
had sketched a variety of vague designs. 
A gray sack buttoned to the throat and 
confined by a leathern belt, and trowsers 
of the same stuffed into his long coarse 
woolen stockings, completed his cos- 
tume. He was shod, like an Indian, in 
ojotas, or sandals cut out of raw leather 
and laced to his legs with thongs. Two 
ox-horns hanging at his side contained 
his ammunition, and a light haversack 
was slung over his back. This mozo, 
who at a distance would have passed for 
a man of forty, appeared on examina- 
tion to be under twenty-two years of age. 



It was likewise observable on a nearer 
view that his skin was brown and clear 
like a chestnut, and that his lively eye, 
perfect teeth and air of decision were 
calculated to please an Indian girl of his 
vicinity. To complete his rehabilitation 
in the eyes of the party, his introductory 
address was delivered with the grace of 
a Spanish cavalier. 

"The gentlemen,'' said he, gracefully 
getting rid of his superabundant hat, 
"will voluntarily excuse me for having 
waited so long with my respects and 
ofters of service. I should have gone to 
meet them at Marcapata, but my uncle 
the gobernador forbade me to do so for 
fear of displeasing the priest. Gentle- 
men, I am Juan the nephew of Aragon. 
It is by the advice of my uncle that I 
have come to place myself in your way, 
and ask if you will admit me to youi 
company as mozo-assistant and inter- 
preter." 

The colonel, whose antipathy to the 
salteador did not yield on a closer ac- 
quaintance, roughly asked the youth 
what he meant by his assurance. Mr. 
Marcoy, however, was disposed to tem- 
porize. 

" If you are Juan the nephew of Ara- 
gon," said he, "you must have already 
learned from your uncle that we have 
engaged an interpreter, Pepe Garcia of 
Chile-Chile." 

"Precisely what he told me, sefior," 
replied the young man; "but, for my 
part, I thought that if one interpreter 
would be useful to these gentlemen on 
their journey, two interpreters would be 
a good deal better, on account of the 
fact that we walk better with two legs 
than with one : that is the. reason I have 
intercepted you, gentlemen." 

This opinion made everybody laugh, 
and as Juan considered it his privilege 
to laugh five times louder than any one, 
a quasi engagement resulted from this 
sudden harmony of temper. Colonei 
Perez shrugged his shoulders : Marcoy 
as literary man, took down the name of 
the new-comer. The nephew of Aragon 
was so delighted that he gave vent to a 
little cry of pleasure, at the same time 
cutting a pirouette. This harmless caper 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



allowed the pa.T} to detect, tied to his I an instrument which the Paganinis cfthtr 
ha\ ersack, the loCc. . banjo, or chanuigu, \ country m ike for themselves out of half 




"GENTLEMEN, I AM JUAN THE NEPHEW OF ARAGON." — P. I9. 



a calabash and the unfeeling bowels of 
the cat. 

The priest, who had recommended 



Pepe Garcia, had made mention of thai 
person's fine voice, with which the church 
of Marcapata was edified every Sunday. 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



Thegobernador, while putting in a word 
for his nephew, and particularizing the 
beauty of his execution on the guitar, 
had insinuated doubts of the baritone 
favored by the padre. Happy land, 
whose disputes are like the disputes of 
an opera company, and where people 
are recommended for business on the 
strength of their musical execution ! 

Aragon quickly understood that his 
friend in the expedition was not Colonel 
Perez, who had insultingly dubbed him 
the Second Fiddle (or Charango). He 
attached himself therefore with the fidel- 
ity of a spaniel to Mr. Marcoy, walking 
alongside and resting his arm on the 
pommel of his saddle. After an hour's 
traverse of a comparatively desert pla- 
teau called the Pedregal, covered with 
rocks and smelling of the patchouli- 
scented flowers of the mimosa, Aragon 
pointed out the straw sheds and grassy 
plaza of Chile-Chile. This rustic me- 
tropolis is not indicated on many maps, 
but for the travelers it had a special im- 
portance, bearing upon the inca history 
and etymological roots of Peru, for it was 
the residence of their interpreter-in-chief, 
Pepe Garcia. 

Introduced by the latter, our explorers 
made a kind of triumphal entry into the 
village. The old Indian women dropped 
their spinning, the naked children ceased 
to play with the pigs and began to play 
with the garments and equipage of the 
visitors, and a couple of blind men, who 
were leading each other, remarked that 
they were glad to see them. 

Garcia the polyglot, radiant with im- 
portance, lost no time in dragging his 
guests toward his own residence, a large 
straw thatch surmounting walls of open- 
work, which took the fancy of the trav- 
elers from the singular trophy attached 
above the door. This trophy was com- 
posed of the heads of bucks and rams, 
with those of the fox and the ounce, 
where the shrunken skin displayed the 
pointed sierra of the teeth, while the 
horns of oxen and goats, set end to end 
around the borders, formed dark and 
rigid festoons : all vacancies were filled 
up with the forms of bats, spread-eagled 
and nailed fast, from the smallest variety 



to the large, man-attacking vespertilio. 
As a contrast to this exterior decoration, 
the inside was severely simple : it was 
even a little bare. A partition of bam- 
boo divided the hut into kitchen and 
bed-room, and that was all. Into the 
latter of these apartments Pepe Garcia 
dragged the saddles of his guests, and 
in the former his two twin-daughters, 
melancholy little half-breeds in ragged 
petticoats, assisted their father to prepare 
for the wanderers a hunter's supper. 

Every moment, in a dark corner or 
behind the backs of the company, Gar- 
cia was observed caressing these little 
girls in secret. Being rallied on his ten- 
derness, he observed that the twins were 
the double pledge of a union "longer 
happy than was usual," and the only 
survivors of fifteen darlings whom he 
had given to the world in the various 
countries whither his wandering fortunes 
had led him. Still explaining and mul- 
tiplying his caresses, the man of family 
went on with his exertions as cook, and 
in due time announced the meal. 

This festival consisted of sweet pota- 
toes baked in the ashes, and steaks of bear 
broiled over the coals. The latter viand 
was repulsed with horror by the colonel, 
who in the effeminacy of a city life at 
Cuzco had never tasted anything more 
outlandish than monkey. Seeing his 
companions eating without scruple, how- 
ever, the valiant warrior extended his 
tin plate with a silent gesture of applica- 
tion. The first mouthful appeared hard 
to swallow, but at the second, looking 
round at his fellow-travelers with sur- 
prise and joy, he gave up his prejudices, 
and marked off the remainder of his 
steak with wonderful swiftness. Stand- 
ing behind his boarders, Pepe Garcia 
had been watching the play of jaws and 
expressions of face with some uneasi- 
ness, but when the colonel gave in his 
adhesion his doubts were removed, and 
he smiled agreeably, flattered in his 
double quality of hunter and cook. 

The beds of the gentlemen-travelers 
were spread side by side in the adjoin- 
ing room, and Garcia gravely assured 
them that they would sleep like the 
Three Wise Men of the East. Unable 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



to see any personal analogy between I Melchior and Balthazar, the tired cava- 
themselves and the ancient Caspar, | liers turned in without remarking on the 




subject. They paused a moment, how- 
ever, before taking up their candle, to set 
forth to Garcia in full the circumstances 



and nature of Juan of Aragon's engage- 
ment. This explanation, which the close 
quarters of the troop had made impos- 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



23 



sible during the journey, was received 
in excellent part by the interpreter-in- 
chief. 

"Oh, I am not at all jealous of Ara- 
gon," said he, "and the gentlemen have 
done very well in taking him along. 
He will be of great use. He is a bright, 
capable mozo, who would walk twenty 
miles on his hands to gain a piastre. 
As an interpreter, I think he is almost 
as good as I am." 

Having thus smoothed away all 
grounds of rivalry, the colonel, the ex- 
aminador and Marcoy took possession 
of their sleeping-room. Here, long after 
their light was put out, they watched the 
scene going on in the apartment they 
had just left, whose interior, illuminated 
by a candle and a lingering fire, was 
perfectly visible through the partition of 
bamboo. The dark-skinned girls, on 
their knees in a corner, were gathering 
together the shirts and stockings destined 
for the parental traveling-bag. Garcia, 
for his part, was occupied in cleaning 
with a bit of rag a portentous, long-bar- 
reled carbine, apparently dating back to 
the time of Pizarro, which he had been 
exhibiting during the day as his hunt- 
ing rifle, and which he intended to carry 
along with him. 

The sleep under the thatched roof of 
Pepe Garcia, though somewhat less 
sound than that of the Three Magi in 
their tomb at Cologne, lasted until a ray 
of the morning sun had penetrated the 
open-work walls of the hut. The colonel 
rapidly dressed himself, and aroused the 
others. A disquieting silence reigned 
around the modest mansions of Chile- 
Chile. The interpreter was away, Juan 
of Aragon was away, the muleteers had 
returned, according to instructions re- 
ceived over-night, to Marcapata with the 
anima Is, and the peons were found dead- 
drunk behind the mud wall of the last 
house in the village. 

Aft(;r three hours of impatient waiting 
there appeared — not Garcia and Aragon, 
whose absence was inexplicable, but — 
the faithful Bolivian bark -hunters in a 
body. Not caring to stupefy themselves 
with the peons, they had gone out for a 
reconnoissance in the environs. Con- 



templating the nodding forms of their 
comrades, they now let out the dis- 
couraging fact that these tame Indians, 
madly afraid of their wild brothers the 
Chunchos, had been fortifying them- 
selves steadily with brandy and chicha 
all the way from IVIarcapata. Disgusted 
and helpless, Perez and the examinador 
betook themselves to reading tattered 
newspapers issued at Lima a month 
before, and Marcoy to his note-book. 
Suddenly a ferocious wild-beast cry was 
heard coming from the woods, and while 
the Indian porters tried to run away, and 
the white men looked at each other with 
apprehension, Pepe Garcia and Aragon 
appeared in the distance. Their arms 
were interlaced in a brother-like manner, 
they were poising themselves with much 
care on their legs, and they were drunk. 
Well had the elder interpreter said that 
he was not jealous of Aragon. They 
rolled forward toward the party, repeat- 
ing their outrageous duet, whose recep- 
tion by the staring" peons appeared to 
gratify them immensely. 

The mozo, feeling his secondary po- 
sition, had enervated himself slightly 
— the superior was magisterially tipsy. 
He wore a remarkable hat entirely with- 
out a brim, and patched all over the top 
with a lid of leather. His face, marked 
up to the eyes with the blue stubble of 
that beard which- filled him with pride 
as a sign of European extraction, was 
swollen and hideous with drunkenness. 
He carried, besides the fearful blunder- 
buss of the night before, a belt full of 
pistols and hatchets. A short infantry- 
sword was banging away at his calves, 
and two long ox-horns rattled at his waist. 
The interpreters had been partaking of 
a little complimentary breakfast with the 
muleteers in whose care the animals had 
gone off to Marcapata. 

A concentration of energy on the part 
of the chiefs of the expedition was re- 
quired to set in movement this unprom- 
ising assemblage. The examinador un- 
dertook the peons : he rapped them 
smartly and repeatedly about the head 
and shoulders, until they staggered to 
their feet and declared that they were a 
match for whole hordes of Indians : this 



24 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



courage, borrowed from the flask, gave I from genuine Chunchos they would take 
strong assurance that at the first alarm | to their heels. Mr. Marcoy, feeling un- 




able to do justice to the case of the 
nephew, turned him over to Perez, whose 
undisguised dislike made the work of 



correction at once grateful and thorough. 
Marcoy himself confronted the stolid 
and sullen Pepe Garcia, insisting upon 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



25 



the example he owed to the Indian por- 
ters and the responsibility of his Cau- 
casian blood. The half breed listened 
for a minute, his eyes fixed upon the 
ground : he then shook himself, looked 
an instant at his employer, and planted 
himself firmly on his legs. Then, de- 
termined to prove by a supreme effort 
that he was clear-headed and master of 
his motions, he suddenly drew his sword, 
hustled the Indians in a line by two and 
two, pointed out to Aragon his position 
as rear-guard, and cried with a voice 
of thunder, ''Adelante f The porters 
and peons staggered forward, knocking 
against each other's elbows and totter- 
ing on their stout legs. The three white 
men, burdenless, but regretting their 
horses, walked as they pleased, keeping 
the train in sight. And John the nephew 
of Aragon's guitar, dangling at his back, 
brought up the rear, with its suggestions 
of harmony and the amenities of life. 

The first trait of aboriginal character 
(after this parenthetical alacrity at drunk- 
enness) was shown after some hours of 
marching and the passage of a dozen 
streams. The porters, weakened by 
their drink and the extreme heat, squat- 
ted down on the side of a hill by their 
own consent and with a single impulse. 
With that lamb-like placidity and that 
mule-like obstinacy which characterize 
the antique race of Quechuas, they ob- 
served to the chief interpreter that they 
were weary of falling on their backs or 
their stomachs at every other step, and 
that they were resolved to go no farther. 
Pepe Garcia caused the remark to be 
repeated once more, as if he had not un- 
derstood it : then, convinced that an in- 
cipient rebellion was brewing, he sprang 
upon the fellow who happened to be 
nearest, haled him up from the ground 
by the ears, and, shaking him vigorously, 
proceeded to do as much for the rest of 
the band. In the flash of an eye, much 
to their astonishment, they found them- 
selves on their feet. 

A judicious if not very discriminating 
award of blows from the sabre then fol- 
lowed, causing the Indians to change 
their resolve of remaining in that par- 
ticular spot, and to show a lively deter- 



mination to get away from it as quickly 
as possible. Each porter, forgetting his 
fatigue, and seeming never to have felt 
any, began to trot along, no longer lan- 
guidly as before, but with a precision of 
step and a firmness in his round calves 
which surprised and charmed the trav- 
elers. Pepe Garcia, much refreshed by 
this exercise of disciphne, and perspiring 
away his intoxication as he marched, 
began to give grounds for confidence 
from his steady and authoritative man- 
ner. By nightfall the whole troop was 
in harmony, and the strangers retired 
with hopeful hearts to the privacy of the 
hammocks which Juan of Aragon slung 
amongst the trees on the side of Mount 
Morayaca. 

No effect could seem finer, to wander- 
ers from another latitude, than this first 
night-bivouac in the absolute wilderness. 
The moon, seeming to race through the 
clouds, and the camp-fire flashing in the 
wind, appeared to give movement and 
animation to the landscape. The In- 
dians, grouped around the flame, seem- 
ed like swarthy imps tending the furnace 
of some fantastic pandemonium. Mean- 
while, amidst the constant murmurs of 
the trees, the nephew of Aragon was 
heard drawing the notes of some kind 
of amorous despair from the hollow of 
his melodious calabash. The examina- 
dor and Colonel Perez lulled themselves 
to sleep with a conversation about the 
beauties and beatitudes of their wives, 
now playing the part of Penelopes in 
their absence. To hear the eulogies of 
the examinador, an angel fallen perpen- 
dicularly from heaven could hardly have 
realized the physical and moral qualities 
of the spouse he had left in Sorata. The 
Castihan tongue lent wonderful pomp 
and magnificence to this portrait, and as 
the metaphors thickened and the superb 
phrases lost themselves in hyperbole, one 
would have thought the lady in question 
was about to fly back to her native stars 
on a pair of resplendent wings. Colonel 
Perez furnished an equally elaborate de- 
lineation of his own fair helpmate. As 
for the wife of Lorenzo, nobody knew 
what she was like, and the panegyric 
from the lips of her faithful lord rolled 



26 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



on in safety and success. But the per- 
sonage called by Perez "his Theresa" 
was a female whom anybody who had 
passed through the small shopkeeping 
quarters of Cuzco might have seen every 
day, as well as heard designated by her 
common nickname (given no one knows 
why) of Malignant Quinsy ; and, arguing 
in algebraic fashion from the known to 
the unknown, it was not difficult to be 
convinced that the poetic flights of the 
examinador were equally the work of 
fond flattery. 

Surprised by a midnight storm, the 
camp was broken up before the early 
daylight, and our explorers' caravan 
moved on without breakfast. This 
necessary stop-gap was arranged for at 
the first pleasant spot on the route. An 
old clearing soon appeared, provided 
with the welcome accommodation of an 
ajoupa, or shed built upon four posts. 
At the command of Alto alii! — "Halt 
there !" — uttered by Perez in the tone he 
had formerly used in governing his troops, 
the whole band stopped as one person ; 
the porters dumped their bales with a 
significant ugh I the Bolivian bark-hunt- 
ers laid down their axes ; and the gen- 
tlemen arranged themselves around the 
parallelogram of the hut, attending the 
commissariat developments of Colonel 
Perez. The site which hazard had so 
conveniently offered was named Chaupi- 
chaca. It was the scene of an ancient 
wood-cutting, around which the trunks 
of the antique forests showed themselves 
in a warm soft light, like the columns of 
a temple or the shafts of a mosque. 

A detail which struck the travelers in 
arriving was very characteristic of these 
lands, filled so full of old traditions and 
inca customs. Chaupichaca was marked 
with a square terminal pillar, one of those 
boundaries of mud and stones, called 
apachectas, which Peruvian masonry 
lavishes over the country of Manco 
Capac. A rude cross of sticks sur- 
mounted this stone altar, on which some 
pious hand had laid a nosegay, now 
dried — signifying, in the language of 
flowers proper to masons and stone-cut- 
ters, that the work was finished and left. 
A little water and spirits spared from the 



travelers' meal gave a slight air of resto- 
ration to these mysterious offerings, and 
a couple of splendid butterflies, whether 
attracted by the flowers or the alcoholic 
perfume, commenced to waltz around 
the bouquet ; but the corollas contained 
no honey for their diminutive trunks, 
and after a slight examination they 
danced contemptuously away. 

At seven or eight miles' distance an- 
other streamlet was reached, named the 
Mamabamba. It is a slender affluent 
of the Cconi, to be called a rivulet in 
any country but South America, but here 
named a river with the same proud ef- 
frontery which designates as a city any 
collection of a dozen huts thrown into 
the ravine of a mountain. The Mama- 
bamba was crossed by an extemporized 
bridge, constructed on the spot by the in- 
genuity of Garcia and his men. Strange 
and incalculable was the engineering of 
Pepe Garcia. Sometimes, across one of 
these continually-occurring streams, he 
would throw a hastily-felled tree, over 
which, glazed as it was by a night's rain 
or by the humidity of the forest, he would 
invite the travelers to pass. Sometimes, 
to a couple of logs rotting on the banks 
he would nail cross-strips like the rungs 
of a ladder, and, while the torrent boiled 
at a distance below, pass jauntily with 
his Indians, more sure-footed than goats. 
The wider the abyss the more insecure 
the causeway ; and the terrible rope- 
bridges of South America, or the still 
more conjectural throw of a line of woven 
roots, would meet the travelers wherever 
the cleft was so wide as to render timber- 
ing an inconvenient trouble. Occasion- 
ally, on one of these damp and moss- 
grown ladders, a peon's foot would slip, 
and down he would go, the load strap- 
ped on his back catching him as he was 
passing through the aperture : then, using 
his hands to hold on by, he would com- 
pose, on the spur of the moment, a new 
and original language or telegraphy of 
the legs, kickifig for assistance with all 
his might. Juan of Aragon was usually 
the hero to extricate these poor eslrays 
from the false step they had taken, the 
other peons regarding the scene with 
their tranquil stolidity. A glass of bran- 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



27 



dy to the unfortunate would always com- I hope for a few more accidents of a^ like 
pose his nerves again, and make him I nature and bringing a hkc consolation. 




"THE MAMABAMBA WAS CROSSED BY AN EXTEMPORIZED KRIDGE." — P. 26. 



The bridge of the Mamabamba con- I name, through an interval of forest where 
ducted the party to a site of the same | might be counted most of the varieties 



28 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERL. 



of tree proper to the equatorial high- 
lands. Up to this point the vegetation 
everywhere abounding had not indicated 
the presence, or even the vicinage, of 
the cinchona. The only circumstance 
which brought it to the notice of the 
inexperienced leaders of the expedition 
would be a halt made from time to time 
by the Bolivian bark-hunters. The ex- 
aminador and his cascarilleros, touching 
one tree or another with their hatchets, 
would exchange remarks full of mean- 
ing and mysteriousness ; but when the 
colonel or Mr. Marcoy came to ask the 
significance of so many hints and signals, 
they got the invariable answer of Sister 
Anna to the wife of Bluebeard : " I see 
nothing but the forest turning green and 
the sun turning red." The most prac- 
tical reminder of the quest of cinchona 
which the travelers found was an occa- 
sional ajoupa alone in the wilderness, 
with a broken pot and a rusted knife or 
axe beneath it — witness that some eager 
searcher had traveled the road before 
themselves. The cascarilleros are very 
avaricious and very brave, going out 
alone, setting up a hut in a probable- 
looking spot, and diverging from their 
head- quarters in every direction. If by 
any accident they get lost or their pro- 
visions are destroyed, they die of hunger. 
Doctor Weddell, on one occasion in Bo- 
livia, landed on the beach of a river well 
shaded with trees. Here he found the 
cabin of a cascarillero, and near it a 
man stretched out upon the ground in 
the agonies of death. He was nearly 
naked, and covered with myriads of in- 
sects, whose stings had hastened his end. 
On the leaves which formed the roof of 
the hut were the remains of the unfor- 
tunate man's clothes, a straw hat and 
some rags, with a knife, an earthen pot 
containing the remains of his last meal, 
a little maize and two or three chunus. 
Such is the end to which their hazardous 
occupation exposes the bark-collectors — 
death in the midst of the forests, far from 
home ; a death without help and without 
consolation. 

It was not until after passing the ele- 
vated site of San Pedro, and clambering 
up the slippery shoulders of the hill call- 



ed Huaynapata — the crossing of half a 
dozen intervening streamlets going for 
nothing — that the explorers were reward- 
ed with a sight of their Canaan, the bark- 
producing region. To attain this sum- 
mit of Huaynapata, however, the httle 
tributary of Mendoza had to be first got 
over. This affluent of the Cconi, flow- 
ing in from the south-south-west, was 
very sluggish as far as it could be seen. 
Its banks, interrupted by large rocks 
clothed with moss, offered now and then 
promontories surrounded at the base with 
a bluish shade. At the end of the vista, 
a not very extensive one, a quantity of 
blocks of sandstone piled together re- 
sembled a crumbling wall. Other blocks 
were sprinkled over the bed of the stream ; 
and by their aid the examinador and the 
colonel hopped vaUantly over the Men- 
doza, leaving the peons, who were less 
afraid of rheumatism and more in danger 
of slipping, to ford the current at the 
depth of their suspender-buttons. 

It was on the top of Huaynapata, 
while the interpreters built a fire and 
prepared for supper a peccary killed 
upon the road, that Marcoy observed 
the examinador holding with his Boliv- 
ians a conversation in the Aymara dia- 
lect, in which could be detected such 
words as anaranjada and morada. 
These were the well-known commercial 
names of two species of cinchona. The 
historiographer interrupted their conver- 
sation to ask if anything had yet been 
discovered. 

"Nothing yet," replied the examina- 
dor ; "and this valley of the Cconi must 
be bewitched, for with the course that 
we have taken we should long ago have 
discovered what we are after. But this 
place looks more favorable than any we 
have met. I shall beat up the woods 
to-morrow Avith my men, and may my 
patron. Saint Lorenzo, return again to 
his gridiron if we do not date our first 
success in quinine-hunting from this very 
hillock of Huaynapata !" 

The above style of threatening the 
saints is thought very efficacious in all 
Spanish countries. Whether or no Saint 
Lawrence really dreaded another expe- 
rience of broiling, at the end of certain 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



29 



hours the Bolivians reappeared, and 
their chief deposited in the hands of the 



colonel a few green and tender branches. 
At the joyful shout of Perez, the man of 




letters, who had been occupied in mak- 
ing a sketch, came running up. Two 
different species of cinchona were the 



trophy brought back by Lorenzo, like 
the olive-leaves in the beak of Noah's 
dove. One of these specimens was a 



3° 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



variety oi the Carua-carua, with large 
leaves heavily veined : the other was an 
individual resembling those quinquinas 
which the botanists Ruiz and Pavon have 
discriminated from the cinchonas, to 
make a separate family called the Quin- 
quina cosmibiiena. After all, the dis- 
covery was rather an indication than a 
conquest of value. The examinador 
admitted as much, but observed that the 
presence of these baser species always 
argued the neighborhood of genuine 
quinine-yielding plants near by. 

In the presence of this first success on 
the part of the exploration set on foot 
by Don Juan Sanz de Santo Domingo, 
we may insert a few words on the nature 
of the wonderful plant toward which its 
researches were directed. 

It is doubtful whether the aboriginal 
inhabitants of Peru, Bolivia and Ecua- 
dor were acquainted with the virtues of 
the cinchona plant as a febrifuge. It 
seeems probable, nevertheless, that the 
Indians of Loxa, two hundred and thirty 
miles south of Peru, were aware of the 
qualities of the bark, for there its use 
was first made known to Europeans. It 
was forty years after the pacification of 
Peru however, before any communica- 
tion of the remedial secret was made to 
the Spaniards. Joseph de Jussieu reports 
that in 1600 a Jesuit, who had a fever 
at Malacotas, was cured by Peruvian 
bark. In 1638 the countess Ana of 
Chinchon was suffering from tertian 
fever and ague at Lima, whither she had 
accompanied the viceroy, her husband. 
The corregidor of Loxa, Don Juan Lo- 
pez de Canizares, sent a parcel of pow- 
dered quinquina bark to her physician, 
Juan de Vega, assuring him that it was 
a sovereign and infallible remedy for 
"tertiana." It was administered to the 
countess, who was sixty-two years of 
age, and effected a complete cure. This 
countess, returning with her husband to 
Spain in 1640, brought with her a quan- 
tity of the healing bark. Hence it was 
sometimes called "countess's bark" and 
"countess's powder." Her famous cure 
induced Linnaeus, long after, to name 
the whole genus of quinine-bearing trees, 
in her honor, Cinchotia. By modern 



writers the first k has usually been drop- 
ped, and the word is now almost inva- 
riably spelled in that way, instead of 
the more etymological Chinchona. The 
Jesuits afterward made great and effect- 
ive use of it in their missionary expe- 
ditions, and it was a ludicrous result of 
their patronage that its use should have 
been for a long time opposed by Protest- 
ants and favored by Catholics. In 1679, 
Louis XIV. bought the secret of pre- 
paring quinquina from Sir Robert Tal- 
bor, an English doctor, for two thousand 
louis-d'or, a large pension and a title. 
Under the Grand Monarch it was used 
at dessert, mingled with Spanish wine. 
The delay of its discovery until the sev- 
enteenth century has probably lost to 
the world numbers of valuable lives. 
Had Alexander the Great, who died of 
the common remittent fever of Babylon, 
been acquainted with cinchona bark, his 
death would have been averted and the 
partition of the Macedonian empire in- 
definitely postponed. Oliver Cromwell 
was carried off by an ague, which the 
administration of quinine would easily 
have cured. The bigotry of medical sci- 
ence, even after its efficacy was known 
and proved, for a long time retarded its 
dissemination. In 1726, La Fontaine, 
at the instance of a lady who owed her 
life to it, the countess of Bouillon, com- 
posed a poem in two cantos to celebrate 
its virtues ; but the remarkable beauty 
of the leaves of the cinchona and the 
delicious fragrance of its flowers, with 
allusions to which he might have adorn- 
ed his verses, were still unknown in 
Europe. 

The cinchonas under favorable cir- 
cumstances become large trees : at pres- 
ent, however, in any of the explored 
and exploited regions of their growth, 
the shoots or suckers of the plants are 
all that remain. Wherever they abound 
they form the handsomest foliage of the 
forest. The leaves are lanceolate, glossy 
and vividly green, traversed by rich 
crimson veins : the flowers hang in clus- 
tering pellicles, like lilacs, of deep rose- 
color, and fill the vicinity with rich per- 
fume. Nineteen varieties of cinchonce 
have been established by Doctor Wed- 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



3» 



dell. The cascarilleros of South Amer- 
ica divide the species into a category of 
colors, according to the tinge of the bark : 
there are yellow, red, orange, violet, gray 
and white cinchonas. The yellow, among 
which figure the Cmchona calisaya, lan- 
cifolia, condamiftea, micrantha, ptibes- 
cens, etc., are placed in the first rank : 
the red, orange and gray are less esteem- 
ed. This arrangement is in proportion 
to the abundance of the alkaloid quhtme, 
now used in medicine instead of the bark 
itself. 

The specimens found by the examina- 
dor were carefully wrapped in blankets, 
and the march was resumed. After a 
slippery descent of the side of Huayna- 
pata and the passage of a considerable 
number of babbling streams — each of 
which gave new occasion for the colonel 
to show his ingenuity in getting over 
dryshod, and so sparing his threatening 
rheumatism — the cry of "Sausipata!" 
was uttered by Pepe Garcia. Two neat 
mud cabins, each provided with a door 
furnished with' the unusual luxury of a 
wooden latch, marked the plantation of 
Sausipata. The situation was level, and 
within the enclosing walls of the forest 
could be seen a plantation of bananas, 
a field of sugar-cane, with groves of 
coffee, orange-orchards and gardens of 
sweet potato and pineapple. The white 
visitors could not refrain from an excla- 
mation of surprise at the neatness and 
civilization of such an Eden in the 
desert. At this point, Juan of Aragon, 
who had been going on ahead, turned 
around with an air of splendid welcome, 
and explained that the farm belonged to 
his uncle, the gobernador of Marcapata, 
who prayed them to make themselves at 
home. Introducing his guests into the 
largest of the houses, Juan presented 
them with some fine ripe fruit which he 
culled from the garden. Colonel Perez, 
who never lost occasion to give a sly 
stab to the mozo, asked, as he peeled a 
banana, if he was duly authorized to 
dispose so readily of the property of his 
uncle : the youth, without losing a par- 
ticle of his magnificent adolescent court- 
esy, replied that as nephew and direct 
heir of the governor of Marcapata it was 



a right which he exercised in anticipation 
of inheritance ; and that just as Pepe 
Garcia, the interpreter-in-chief, had re- 
galed the party in his residence, he, Juan 
of Aragon, proposed to do in the family 
grange of Sausipata. 

Meantime, the examinador, who had 
pushed forward with his men, returned 
with a couple more specimens of quin- 
quina, which they had discovered close 
by in clambering amongst the forest. 
Neither had flowers, but the one was 
recognizable by its flat leaf as the species 
called by the Indians ichtc-cascarilla, 
from the grain ichti amongst which it is 
usually found at the base of the Cordil- 
leras ; and the other, from its fruit-cap- 
sules two inches in length, as the Cin- 
chona acntifolia of Ruiz and Pavon. 
To moderate the pleasures of this dis- 
covery, the examinador came up lean- 
ing upon the shoulder of his principal 
assistant, Eusebio, complaining of a 
frightful headache, and a weakness so 
extreme that he could not put one foot 
before the other. 

The sudden illness of their botanist- 
in-chief cast a gloom upon tLe party, and 
utterly spoiled the festive intentions of 
young Aragon. Lorenzo was put to bed, 
from which retreat, at midnight, his fear- 
ful groans summoned the colonel to his 
side. The latter found him tossing and 
murmuring, but incapable of uttering a 
word. His faithful Eusebio, at the head 
of the bed, answered for him. The 
honest fellow feared lest his master might 
have caught again a touch of the old 
fever which had formerly attacked him 
in searching for cascarillas in the en- 
virons of Tipoani in Bolivia. These 
symptoms, recurring in the lower valleys 
of the Cconi, would make it impossible 
for the brave explorer safely to continue 
with the party. As the mestizo pro- 
pounded this inconvenient theory, a new 
burst of groans from the examinador 
seemed to confirm it. The grave news 
brought all the party to the sick bed. 
Colonel Perez, whom the touching com- 
parison of wives made in the hammocks 
of Morayaca had sensibly attached to 
Lorenzo, endeavored to feel his pulse ; 
but the patient, drawing in his hand by 



32 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



a peevish movement, only rolled himself 
more tightly in his blanket, and increased 
his groans to roars. Presently, exhaust- 
ed by so much agony, he fell into a 
slumber. 

In the morning the examinador, in a 
dolorous voice, announced that he should 
be obliged to return to Cuzco. This 
resolution might have seemed the ob- 
stinate delirium of the fever but for the 
mournful and pathetic calmness of the 
victim. Eusebio, he said, should return 
with him as far as Chile-Chile, where a 
conveyance could be had; and he him- 
self would give such explicit instructions 
to the cascarilleros that nothing would 
be lost by his absence to the purposes 
of the expedition. Yielding to pity and 
friendship, the colonel gave in his ad- 
hesion to the plan, and even proposed 
his own hammock as a sort of palanquin, 
and the loan of a pair of the peons for 
bearers. They could return with Euse- 
bio to Sausipata, where the party would 
be obliged to wait for the three. After 
sketching out his plan, Colonel Perez 
looked for approval to Mr. Marcoy, and 
received an affirmative nod. The prop- 
osition seemed so agreeable to the sick 
man that already an alleviation of his 
misery appeared to be superinduced. 
He even smiled intelligently as he rolled 
into the hammock. In a very short time 
he made a sort of theatrical exit, borne 
in the hammock like an invalid princess, 
and fanned with a palm branch out of 
the garden by the faithful Eusebio. 

" Poor devil !" said Perez as the mourn- 
ful procession departed : " who knows if 
he will ever see his dear wife at Sorata, 
or if he will even live to reach Chile- 
Chile ?" 

" Do you really think him in any such 
danger?" asked the more suspicious 
Marcoy. 

" Danger ! Did you not see his mis- 
erable appearance as he left us .''" 

" I saw an appearance far from miser- 
able, and therefore I am convinced that 
the man is no more sick than you or I." 

On hearing such a heartless heresy 
the colonel stepped back from his com- 
rade with a shocked expression, and 
asked what had given him such an idea. 



" A number of things, of which I need 
only mention the principal. In the first 
place, the man's sickness falling on him 
like a thunder-clap ; next, his haste in 
catching back his hand when you tried 
to feel his pulse ; and then his smile, at 
once happy and mischievous, when you 
offered him the peons and he found his 
stratagem succeeding beyond his hopes." 

"Why, now, to think of it!" said the 
colonel sadly; "but what could have 
been his motive ?" 

"This gentleman is too delicate to sus- 
tain our kind of life," suggested Marcoy. 
" He is tired of skinning his hands and 
legs in our service, and eating peccary, 
monkey and snails as we do. His Bo- 
livians are perhaps quite as useful for 
our service, and while he is rioting at 
Cuzco we may be enriching ourselves 
with cinchonas." 

In effect, on the return of the peons 
ten days, after, the examinador was re- 
ported to have got quit of his fever short- 
ly after leaving Sausipata, and to have 
borne the journey to Chile-Chile remark- 
ably well. He charged his men to take 
back his compliments and the regrets he 
felt at not being able to keep with the 
company. 

Nothing detained the band longer at 
Sausipata. The ten days of hunting, 
botanizing, butterfly-catching and sketch- 
ing had been an agreeable relief, and 
young Aragon had assumed, with suf- 
ficient grace, the task of attentive host 
and first player on the charango. The 
returning porters had scarcely enjoyed 
two hours of repose when the caravan 
took up its march once more. 

As usual, the interpreters assumed the 
head of the command : the Indians fol- 
lowed pellmell. Observing that some 
of them lingered behind, Mr. Marcoy 
had the curiosity to return on his steps. 
What was his surprise to find these hon- 
est fellows running furiously through the 
farm, and devastating with all their might 
those plantations which were the pride 
and the hope of the nephew of Aragon ! 
They had already laid low several cocoa 
groves, torn up the sugar-canes, broken 
down the bananas, and sliced off the 
green pineapples. 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



r^ 



Indignant at such vandalism, Marcoy I 
caught the first offender by the plaited 
tails at the back of the neck. "What 
are you doing?" he cried. 

*' I am neither crazy nor drunk, Tay- 
tachay" (dear little father), calmly ex- 
plained the peon with his placid smile. 
" But my fellows and I don't want to be 
sent any more to work at Sausipata." 
As the white man regarded him with 
stupefaction, "Thou art strange here," 
pursued the Indian, "and canst know 
nothing about us. Promise not to tell 
Aragon, and I will make thee wise." 

"Why Aragon more than anybody 
else ?" asked Marcoy. 

" Because Senor Aragon is nephew to 
Don ReboUido, the governor, and Sau- 
sipata belongs to Rebollido ; and if he 
were to learn what we have done, we 
should be flogged and sent to prison to 
rot." 

The explanation, drawn out with many 
threats when the Indians had been driven 
from their work of ruin and placed once 
more in line of march, was curious. 

The able gobernador of Marcapata 
had had the sagacious idea of making 
the local penitentiary out of his farm 
of Sausipata ! It was cultivated entirely 
by the labor of his culprits. When cul- 
prits were scarce, the chicha- drinkers, the 
corner-loungers, became criminals and 
disturbers of the peace, for whom a so- 
journ at Sausipata was the obvious cure. 
Aragon, the nephew, shared his uncle's 
ability, and visited the plantation month 
by ]nonth. But the life in this paradise 
was not relished by the convicts. The 
regimen was strict, the food everywhere 
abounding was not for them, and the 
vicinity of the wild Chunchos was not 
reassuring. Often a peon would appear 
in the market-place of Marcapata wrap- 
ped merely in a banana leaf, which, 
cracking in the sun, reduced all pretence 
of decent covering to an irony. This 
evidence of the spoliation of a Chuncho 
would be received in the worst possible 
part by the gobernador, who would beat 
the complainant back to his servitude, 
remarking with ingenuity that Provi- 
r'ence was more responsible for the acts 
of the savages than he was. 



This strange history, told with pro- 
found earnestness, was enough to make 
any one laugh, but Marcoy could not be 
blind to its side of oppression and tyr- 
anny. This was the way, then, that the 
humble and primitive gobernador, who 
had presented himself to the travelers 
barefoot, was enriching himself by the 
knaveries of office ! Marcoy could not 
take heart to inform Juan of Aragon of 
the devastation behind him, but on the 
other hand he resolved to correct the 
abuse on his return by appeal, if neces- 
sary, to the prefect of Cuzco. 

A frightful night in a deserted hut on 
a site called Jimiro — where Marcoy had 
for mattress the legs of one of the por- 
ters, and for pillow the back of a bark- 
hunter — followed the exodus from Sau- 
sipata. The Guarapascana, the Sani- 
aca, the Chuntapunco, flowing into the 
Cconi on opposite sides, were succes- 
sively left behind our adventurers, and 
they bowed for an instant before the 
tomb of a stranger, "a German from 
Germany," as Pepe Garcia said, "who 
pretended to know the language of the 
Chunchos, and who interpreted for him- 
self, but who starved iri, the wilderness 
near the heap of stones you see." Leav- 
ing this resting-place of an interpreter 
who had interpreted so little, the party 
attained a stream of rather unusual im- 
portance. The reputed gold-bearing 
river of Ouitubamba rolled from its tun- 
nel before them, exciting the most vis- 
ionary schemes in the mind of Colonel 
Perez, to whom its auriferous reputation 
was familiar. Nothing would do but that 
the California process of "panning" must 
be carried out in these Peruvian waters, 
and the peons, niultuin reiucfantes, were 
summoned to the task, with all the crow- 
bars and shovels possessed by the ex- 
pedition, supplemented by certain sauce- 
pans and dishes hypothecated from the 
culinary department. The issue of the 
stream from under a crown of indigen- 
ous growths was the site of this financial 
speculation. Pepe Garcia was placed at 
the head of the jnterprise. A long ditch 
was dug, revealing milky quartz, ochres 
and clay. The deceptive hue of the 
yellow earth made the search a long and 



34 SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 

tantalizing one. At the moment when 1 tening in the large frying-pan which he 
the colonel, attracted by something glis- I was agitating at the edge of the stream, 




uttered an exclamation which drew all i caused everybody suddenly to look up 
heads into the cavity of his receptacle, ' An equatorial storm had gathered un- 
an answering sound from the heavens noticed over their heads. Inafewmin- 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



35 



utes a solid s'leet of warm rain, accom- 
panied by a furious tornado sweeping 
through the valley, caused whites and 
Indians to scatter as if for their lives. 
The golden dream of Colonel Perez and 
the similar vision entertained by Pepe 
Garcia were dissipated promptly by this 
answer of the elements. On attaining 
the neighboring sheds of Maniri the 
gold - seekers abandoned their imple- 
ments without remark to the services 
of the cooks, and betook themselves to 
wringing out their stockings as if they 
had never dreamed of walking in silver 
slippers through the streets of Cuzco. 
They made no further attempt to wring 
gold from the mouth of the Ouitubamba. 
' As for Maniri, it was the last site or hu- 
man resting-place of any, the very most 
trivial, kind before the opening of the 
utter wilderness which proceeded to ac- 
company the course of the Cconi River. 

The Bolivians imagined an explora- 
tion of a little stream on the left bank, 
the Chuntapunco, which they thought 
might issue from a quinine-bearing re- 
gion. They built a little raft, and de- 
parted with provisions for three or four 
days. They returned, in fact, after a 
week's absence, with seven varieties of 
cinchona — the hirsuta, lanceolata, pur- 
purea and ovata of Ruiz and Pa von, 
and three more of little value and un- 
known names. 

During the absence of the cascarilleros 
a flat calm reigned in the ajoupa of 
Maniri. Garcia and the colonel, the 
day after their unproductive gold-hunt, 
betook themselves into the forest, osten- 
sibly for game, but in reality to review 
their hopeful labors by the banks of the 
Ouitubamba. Aragon was detailed by 
Ml. Marcoy to accompany him in his 
botanical and entomological tours. On 
these excursions the acquaintance be- 
tween the mozo and the senor was con- 
siderably developed. The youth had nat- 
urally a gay and confident disposition, 
and added not a little to the liveliness 
of the trips. Marcoy profited by their 
stricter connection to converse with him 
about the cultivation of the farm at Sau- 
sipata, making use of a venial deception 
to let him think that the plan of ope- 



rations had been communicated by the 
governor himself. Aragon modestly re- 
plied that the plantation in question was 
only the first of a series of similar clear- 
ings contemplated by his uncle at va- 
rious points in the valley. Arrange- 
ments made for this purpose with the 
governors of Ocongata and Asaroma, 
who were pledged with their support in 
return for heavy presents, would enable 
him soon to cultivate coffee and sugar 
and cocoa at once in a number of haci- 
endas. The enterprise was a splendid 
one; and if God — Aragon pronounced 
the name without a particle of diffidence 
— deigned to bless it, the day was com- 
ing when the fortune of his uncle, solidly 
established, would make him the pride 
and the joy of the region. 

It may as well be mentioned here 
that the subsequent career of the chest- 
nut-colored interpreter is not entirely 
unknown. In i860, Mr. Clement Mark- 
ham, collecting quinine -plants for the 
British government, came upon a splen- 
did hacienda thirty miles from the village 
of Ayapata, in a valley of the Andes 
near the scene of this exploration. Here, 
on the sugar-cane estat.e named San Jose 
de Bellavista, he discovered "an intel- 
ligent and enterprising Peruvian" named 
Aragon, who appears to have been none 
other than our interpreter escaped from 
the chrysalis. His 'establishment was 
very large, and protected from the sav- 
ages by two rivers, Aragon had made a 
mule-road of thirty miles to the village. 
He found the manufacture of spirits for 
the sugar-cane more profitable than dig- 
ging for gold in the Ouitubamba or hunt- 
ing for cascarillas along the Cconi. In 
i860 he sent an expedition into the forest 
after wild cocoa-plants. An india-rub- 
ber manufactory had only failed for want 
of government assistance. He contem- 
plated the estabhshment of a line of 
steamers on the neighboring rivers to 
carry off the commerce of his planta- 
tions. "Any scheme for developing the 
resources of the country is sure to re- 
ceive his advocacy," says Mr. Markham : 
" it would be well for Peru if she con- 
tained many such men." 

(end of part second.) 




X^.A.I^T THIIIE^ID 



EARLY on a brilliant morning, with 
baggage repacked, and the lessen- 
ing amount of provisions inore firmly 
strapped on the shoulders of the Indians, 
the explorers left their pleasant site on 
the banks of the Maniri. The repose 
allowed to the bulk of the party during 
the absence of their Bolivian compan- 
ions had been wholesome and refresh- 
ing. The success of the bark-hunters in 
their search for cinchonas had cheered 
all hearts, and the luxurious supper of 
dried mutton and chuno arranged for 
them on their return gave a reminiscence 
of splendor to the thatched hut on the 
banks of the stream. This edifice, the 
last of civilized construction they expect- 
ed to see, had the effect of a home in 
the wilderness. The bivouac there had 
been enjoyed with a sentiment of tran- 
quil carelessness. Little did the trav- 
elers think that savage eyes had been 
peeping through the forest upon their 
fancied security, and that the wild peo- 
ple of the valleys who were to work them 
all kinds of mischief were upon their 
track from this station forth. 

The enormous fire kindled for break- 
fast mingled with the stain of sunrise to 
cast a glow upon their departure. Across 
the vale of the Cconi, as though a pair 
36 



of sturdy porters had arisen to celebrate 
their leavetaking, the cones of Patabam- 
ba caught the first rays of the sun and 
held them aloft like hospitable torches. 
These huge forms, soldered together at 
the waist like Chang and Eng, and 
clothed with shaggy woods up to the 
top, had been the guardian watchers 
over their days in the ajoupa at Maniri 
The sun just rising empurpled their dou- 
ble cones, while the base and the sur- 
rounding landscape were washed with 
the neutral tints of twihght. 

After passing the narrow affluent after 
which the camping -ground of Maniri 
was named, the party pursued the course 
of the Cconi through a more level tract 
of country. The stones and precipices 
became more rare, but in revenge the 
sandy banks soon began to reflect a heat 
that was hardly bearable. As the im- 
placable sun neared its zenith the party 
walked with bent heads and blinded 
eyes, now dashing through great plains 
of bamboos, now following the hatchets 
of the peons through thickets of heated 
shrubbery. 

Whenever the country became more 
wooded in its character, the bark-hunt- 
ers, whose quest obliged them to stray 
in short flights around the win^s of the 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



2,1 



column, redoubled their mazes. The 
careless air of these Bolivian retrievers, 
their vohintarv doublincrs thro'i'h the 



most difficult jungles, and their easy 
way of walking over everything with 
their noses in the air, proved well their 




indifference to the obstacles which were I Nothing could be more singular and 
almost insurmountable to the rest. interesting than to see them consulting 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



one by one the indications scattered 
around them, and deciding on their 
probabilities or promises. Where the 
height and thickness of the fohage pre- 
vented them from seeing the sky, or 
even the shade of the surrounding green, 
they walked bent toward the ground, 
stirring up the rubbish, and choosing 
among the dead foliage certain leaves, 
of which they carefully examined the 
two sides and the stem. When by acci- 
dent they found themselves near enough 
to speak to each other — a rare chance, 
for each peon undertook a separate 
line of search— they asked their friends, 
showing the leaves they had found, 
whether their discoveries appertained to 
the neighboring trees or whether the 
wind had brought the pieces from a dis- 
tance. This kind of investigation, pur- 
sued by men who had prowled through 
forests all their lives, might seem slightly 
puerile if the reader does not understand 
that it is often difficult, or even impos- 
sible, to recognize the growing tree by 
its bark, covered as it is from base to 
branches with parasitic vegetation of 
every sort. In those forests whatever 
has a stout stem is used without scruplp 
by the bignonias and air-plants, which 
race over the trunk, plant their root- 
claws in the cracks, leap over the whole 
tree at a single jet, or strangle it with 
multiplied knots, all the while adorning 
it with a superb mantle of leaves and 
blossoms. This is a difficulty which the 
most experienced cascarilleros are not 
able to overcome. As an instance, the 
history is cited of a practico or specula- 
tor who led an exploration for these trees 
in the valley of Apolobamba. After 
having caused to be felled, barked, 
measured, dried and trimmed all the 
cinchonas of one of those natural thick- 
ets called manchas — an operation which 
had occupied four months — he was about 
to abandon the spot and pursue the ex- 
ploration elsewhere, when accident led 
him to discover, in the enormous trunk 
buried in creepers against which he had 
built his cabin, a Cinchona nitida, the 
forefather of all the trees he had stripped. 
In this kind of search the caravan 
pursued the borders of the river, some- 



times on this side and sometimes on 
that, now passing the two-headed moun- 
tain Camanti, now sighting the tufted 
peak of Basiri, now crossing the torrent 
called the Garote. In the latter, where 
the dam and hydraulic works of an old 
Spanish gold-hunter were still visible in 
a state of ruin, the sacred golden thirst 
of Colonel Perez once more attacked 
him. Two or three pins' heads of the 
insane metal were actually unearthed 
by the colonel and displayed in a pie- 
dish ; but the business of the party was 
one which made even the finding of 
gold insignificant, and they pursued 
their way. 

The flanks of these mountains, how- 
ever, were really of importance to the bo- 
tanical motive of the expedition. Along 
the side of the Camanti, where the yel- 
low Garote leaked downward in a rocky 
ravine, the Bolivians were again success- 
ful. They brought to Marcoy specimens 
of half a dozen cinchonas, for him to 
sketch, analyze and decorate with Latin 
names. The colors of two or three of 
these barks promised well, but the pearl 
of the collection was a specimen of the 
genuine Calisaya, with its silver-gray 
envelope and leaf ribbed with carmine. 
This proud discovery was a boon for 
science and for commerce. It threw a 
new light upon the geographical locality 
of the most precious species of cinchona. 
It was incontestably the plant, and the 
Bolivians appeared amazed rather than 
pleased to have discovered outside of 
their own country a kind of bark proper 
only to Bolivia, and hardly known to 
overpass the northern extremity of the 
valley of Apolobamba. This discovery 
would rehabilitate, in the European mar- 
ket, the quinine-plants of Lower Peru, 
heretofore considered as inferior to those 
of Upper Peru and Bolivia. The latter 
country has for some time secured the 
most favorable reputation for its barks 
— a reputation ably sustained by the 
efforts of the company De la Paz, ta 
whom the government has long granted 
a monopoly. This reputation is based 
on the abundance in that country of two 
species, the Cinchona calisaya and Bo- 
liviana, the best known and most valued 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



39 



in the market. But for two valuable 
cinchonas possessed by Bolivia, Peru 
can show twenty, many of them excel- 
lent in quality, and awaiting only the 
enterprise of the government and the 
natural exhaustion of the forests to the 
south. 

This magnificent bit of luck, the find- 
ing of the calisaya, awakened in the sus- 
ceptible bosom of Mr. Marcoy an ardent 
desire to explore for himself the site of 
its discovery. But Eusebio, the chief 
of the cascarilleros, assuming a myste- 
rious and warning expression, informed 
the traveler that the place was quite in- 
accessible for a white man, and that he 
had risked his own neck a score of times 
in descending the ravine which separated 
the route from the hillside where the for- 
tunate plants were growing. He prom- 
ised, however, to point out the locality 
from afar, and to show, by a certain 
changeable gloss proper to the leaf, the 
precise stratum of the calisaya amongst 
the belts of the forest. This promise he 
forgot to execute more particularly, but 
it appeared that the locality would never 
be excessively hard to find, marked as 
it was by Nature with the gigantic finger- 
post of Mount Camanti. Placing, then, 
in security these precious specimens 
among their baggage, the explorers con- 
tinued their advance along the valley. 

The footing was level and easy. 
Rocks and precipices were left behind, 
and were displaced by a soft, slippery 
sort of sand, where from space to space 
were planted, like so many oases in a 
desert, clumps of giant reeds. By a 
strange but natural caprice these beds 
of rustling verdure were cut in an infin- 
ity of well-defined geometric forms. Seen 
from an eminence and at a distance, this 
arrangement gave a singular effect. In 
the midst of these native garden-beds 
were cut distinct and narrow alleys, where 
the drifting sands were packed like arti- 
ficial paths. It is unnecessary to add 
that the soft footways, notwithstanding 
their advertisement of verdure and shade, 
proved to be of African temperature. 

The last hours of daylight surprised 
the travelers among the labyrinths of 
these strange gardens. A suitable spot 



was chosen for the halt. As the porters 
were preparing to throw down their 
packs, Pepe Garcia, who marched ahead, 
announced the print of a South Amer- 
ican tiger. The first care of the Indians, 
on hearing this news, was to send forth 
a horrible cry and to throng around the 
marks. The footprints disappeared at 
the thickest part of the jungle. After an 
examination of the traces, which resem- 
bled a large trefoil, they precipitated 
themselves on the interpreter-in-chief, 
representing how impossible it was to 
camp out in the neighborhood of the 
dreaded animal. But Pepe Garcia, ac 
customed as he was by profession to try 
his strength with the ferocious bear and 
the wily boar, was not the man to be 
afraid of a tiger, even of a genuine tigei 
from Bengal. To prove to the porters 
how slight was the estimation he placed 
on the supposed enemy, and also to drill 
them in the case of similar rencounters, 
he pushed the whole troop pellmell into 
the thickest part of the reeds, with the 
surly order to cut down the canes for 
sheds. Drawing his own knife, he slash- 
ed right and left among the stems, which 
the Indians, trembling, with fear, were 
obliged to make into sheaves on the 
spot and transport to the beach selected 
for the bivouac. Double rows of these 
aritndos, driven into the sand, formed 
the partitions of the' cabins, for which 
their interwoven leaves made an ap- 
propriate thatch. The green halls with 
matted vaults were picturesque enough : 
each peon, seeing how easily they were 
constructed, chose to have a house foi 
himself; and the Tiger's Beach quickly 
presented the appearance of a camp 
disposed in a long straight line, of which 
the timorous Indians occupied the ex- 
tremity nearest the river. 

No "tiger" appeared to justify the ap- 
prehensions of the porters ; but what was 
lacking to their fears from beasts with 
four feet was made up to them by beasts 
with wings. The night closed in dry and 
serene. Since leaving Maniri, whether 
because of the broadening of the valley, 
the rarity of the water-courses or the 
decreasing altitude of the hills, the ad- 
venturers had been little troubled with 



40 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



fogs at night. The fauna of the region, 
too, had offered nothing of an alarming 



complexion, except the footprints of the 
tiger in question : an occasional tapir or 




peccary from the woods, and otters and 
fish from the streams, had attracted the 
shots of the party, but merely as wel- 



come additions to their game-bags, not 
as food for their fears. To-night, how- 
ever, the veritable bugbear of the trop- 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



41 



ical forest paid them a visit, and left a 
real souvenir of his presence. As the 
Indian servants stretched themselves out 
in slumber under the bright stars and in 
the partial shelter of their ajoupas, a bat 
of the vampire species, attracted by the 
emanations of their bodies, came sail- 
ing over them, and emboldened by the 
silence reigning everywhere, selected a 
victim for attack. Hovering over the 
fellow's exposed foot, he bit the great 
toe, and fanning his prey in the tradi- 
tional yet inevitable manner by the nat- 
ural movement of his wings, he gorged 
himself with blood without disturbing 
the mozo. The latter, on awakening in 
the morning, observed a slight swelling 
in the perforated part, and on exam- 
ination discovered a round hole large 
enough to admit a pea. Without rising, 
the man summoned his companions, 
who formed a group around him for the 
purpose of furnishing a certain natural 
remedy in the shape of a secretion which 
each one drew out of his ears. With 
this the patient made himself a plaster 
for his wound, and appeared to think 
but little of it. Questioned as to his 
sensations by the white travelers, who 
found themselves a good deal more dis- 
turbed with the idea of the vampire than 
they had been by any indications of 
tigers or wild-boars, the fellow explained 
that he had felt no sensation, unless it 
might have been an agreeable coolness 
to his sand-baked feet. The incident 
seemed so disagreeable and so likely of 
recurrence that Colonel Perez ever af- 
terward slept with his feet rolled up in a 
variety of fantastic draperies, while Mr. 
Marcoy for several nights retained his 
boots. 

The path along the river-sands would 
have been voluntarily followed by all the 
more irresponsible portion of the party, 
notwithstanding the blinding heats, on 
account of its smoother footing. The 
cascarilleros, however, objected that its 
tufts of canes and passifloras offered no 
promise for their researches. A com- 
promise was effected. The porters, un- 
der the command of Juan of Aragon, 
were allowed to follow the shore, and 
were armed with a supply of fish-hooks 



to induce them to add from time to time 
to the alarmingly diminished supply of 
provisions. The grandees of the party 
followed the Bolivians, whose specialty 
entitled them to control practically the 
direction of the route, and plunged into 
the woods to botanize, to explore and 
to search for game. A system of con- 
versation by means of shouts and pis- 
tol-shots was established between the 
two divisions. The next night proved 
the wisdom of this bifurcation. The 
united booty of earth, air and water, 
under the form of a squirrel, a pair of 
toucans and a variety of fish, afforded 
a meal which the porters described as 
coinida opipara, or a sumptuous festi- 
val. Lulled and comforted by the sen- 
sation which a contented stomach wafts 
toward the brain, the explorers, after 
washing their hands and rinsing their 
mouths at the riverside, betook them- 
selves to a cheerful repose sub Jove, the 
locality offering no reeds of the articu- 
lated species with which to construct a 
shelter. 

The party, then, betook themselves to 
slumber with unusual contentment, re- 
peating the splendid supper in their 
dreams, with the addition of eveiy fa- 
mous wine that Oporto and Rheims 
could dispense, when they were awak- 
ened by a sudden and terrible storm. 
A waterspout stooped over the forest and 
sucked up a mass of crackling branches. 
The camp-fire hissed and went out in a 
fume of smoke. A continuity of thun- 
der, far off at first, but approaching 
nearer and nearer, kept up a constant 
and increasing fusillade, to whose reports 
was soon added the voice of the Cconi, 
lashed in its bed and bellowing like the 
sea. The surprising tumult went on in 
a crescendo. The hardly - interrupted 
charges of the lightning gave to the eye 
a strange vision of flying woods and 
soaring branches. Startled, trembling 
and sitting bolt upright, the adventurers 
asked if their last hour were come. The 
rain undertook to answer in spinning 
down upon their heads drops that were 
like bullets, and which for some time 
were taken for hail. Fearing to be 
maimed or blinded as they sat, the party 



42 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



crowded together, placing themselves 
back to back ; and, unable to lay their 
heads uader their wings like the birds, 
sheltered them upon their knees under 
the protection of their crossed arms. 
The fearful deluge of heated shot lasted 
until morning. Then, as if in laughter, 
the sun came radiantly out, the land- 
scape readjusted its disheveled beauties, 
and the ground, covered with boughs 
distributed by the whirlwind, greedily 
drank in the waters from heaven. Soon 
there remained nothing of the memor- 
able tempest but the diamonds falling 
in measured cadence from the refreshed 
and stiffened leaves. 

Up to sunrise the unfortunates rest- 
ed stoically silent, their knees in their 
mouths, and receiving the visitation like 
a group of statuary. The i^ain ceasing 
with the same promptitude with which it 
had risen, they raised their heads and 
looked each other in the face, like the 
enemies over the fire in Byron's Dream. 
Each countenance was blue, and deco- 
rated with long flat locks of adhesive 
hair. The teeth of the whole party were 
chattering like a concert of castanets. 
The sun, like a practical joker, laughed 
ironically at the general picture. 

The first hours of morning were con- 
secrated to a general examination of the 
stores, especially the precious specimens 
of cinchona. Bundles were restrapped, 
the damp provisions laid out in the sun, 
and the clothing of the party, even to 
the most intimate garment, was taken 
down to the river to be refreshed and 
furbished up. A common disaster had 
created a common cause amongst the 
whole troop, and with one accord every- 
body — peons, mozos, interpreters, bark- 
strippers and gentlemen — set in motion 
1 grand cleaning-up day. Napoleon- 
like, they washed their dirty linen in the 
family. Whoever had seen the strangers 
coming and going from the beach to the 
woods, clothed in most abbreviated fash- 
ion, and seeming as familiar to the uni- 
form as if they had always worn it under 
the charitable mantle of the woods, would 
have taken them for a savage tribe in the 
midst of its encampment. It is probable 
ihey were so seen. 



Thanks to the intense heat of the sun- 
shine, the garments and baggage of the 
expedition were quickly dried. The first 
were donned, the last was loaded on the 
porters, and the line of march was taken 
up. Up to noon the road lay along the 
blazing sands under a sun of fire. All 
the members of the party felt fresh and 
hardy after the involuntary bath, except 
one of the Indians, who was affected 
with a kind of ophthalmia. This attack, 
which Mr. Marcoy attributed partly to 
the glare, partly to the wet, and partly 
to a singular hobby peculiar to the in- 
dividual of sleeping with his eyes wide 
open, was of no long duration. The 
pain which he complained of disappear- 
ed with a few hours of exercise and with 
the determination he showed in staring 
straight at the god of day, who, as if 
in memory of the worship formerly ex- 
tended toward him in the country, deign- 
ed to serve as oculist for the sufferer. A 
little before sunset halt was made for the 
night-camp in the centre of a beach pro- 
tected by clumps of reeds in three quar- 
ters of the wind. The Indian porters, 
despatched for fish and firewood, return- 
ed suddenly with a frightened mien to 
say that they had fallen into the midst 
of a camp of savages. The white men 
quickly rejoined them at the spot indi- 
cated, where they found a single hut in 
ruins, made of reeds which appeared to 
have been cut for the construction some 
fortnight before, and strewn with fire- 
brands, banana skins and the tail of a 
large fish. Pepe Garcia, consulted on 
these indications, explained that it was 
in reality the camping-place of some of 
the savage Siriniris, but that the narrow- 
ness of the hut seemed to indicate that 
not more than two of the Indians, prob- 
ably a man and woman, had resided 
there during a short fishing-excursion. 

This discovery cast a shade over the 
countenances of the porters. After hav 
ing collected the provisions necessary 
for a slender supper, they drew apart, 
and, while cooking was going on, began 
to converse with each other in a low 
voice. No notice was taken of their be- 
havior, however, though it would have 
required little imagination to guess the 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININEZ-PLANT IN PERU. 



43 



subject of their parliament. The tired I while their ears, more alert, could hear 
eyes of the explorers were already closed, ' the confused murmur proceeding from 




the Indians' quarter, where the dispo- 
sition seemed to be to prolong the watch 
inderinitely. 



The dark hours filed past, and jocund 
day, according to Shakespeare and Ro- 
meo, stood tiptoe on the mountain-tops 



44 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



of Camanti and Basiri, when the travel- I rible cry. Lifting their heads in aston- 
ers were awakened by a fierce and ter- | ishment, they perceived the faithful Pepe 




" ARAGON AND HIS MEN FELL UPON THE DESERTERS WITHOUT MERCY."- — P. 45. 



Garcia, his face disfigured with rage, 
and his fist shaking vigorously in the 
direction of the Indians, who sat lower- 



ing and sullen in their places. Aragon 
and the cascarilleros, collected around 
the chief interpreter, far from trying to 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



45 



calm his anger, appeared to feed it by 
their suggestions. An explanation of 
the scene was demanded. Eight of the 
bearers, it appeared, had deserted, leav- 
ing to their comrades the pleasure of 
watching over the packages of cinchona, 
but assuming for their part the charge of 
a good fraction of the provisions, which 
they had disappeared with for the relief 
of their fellow-porters. This copious 
bleeding of the larder drew from Colonel 
Perez a terrible oath, and occasioned a 
more vivid sentiment in the entrails of 
Marcoy than the defection of the men. 
If the evil was grand, the remedy was 
correspondingly difficult. Indolent or 
mercurial at pleasure, the Indians had 
doubtless threaded the woods with wing- 
ed feet, and were now far away. Mr. 
Marcoy proposed therefore to continue 
*-he march without them, but to set down 
a heavy account of bastinadoes to their 
credit when they should turn up again 
at Marcapata. This proposition, as it 
erred on the side of mercy, was unani- 
mously rejected, and a scouting-party 
was ordered in pursuit, consisting of the 
bark-hunters and Juan of Aragon, to 
whom for the occasion Pepe Garcia con- 
fided his remarkable fowling-piece. 

In the afternoon the extemporized po- 
lice reappeared. The fugitives had been 
found tranquilly sitting on the banks of 
the river, distending their abdomens with 
the stolen preserves and chocolate. Ara- 
gon and his men fell upon the deserters 
without mercy. The former, battering 
away at them with the stock of his gun, 
and the latter, exercising upon their 
shoulders whatever they possessed in the 
way of lassoes, axe-handles and sabre- 
blades, maintained the argument effect- 
ually for some time in this way, and did 
not descend to questions until muscular 
fatigue caused them to desist. The cat- 
echism subsequently put to the porters 
ehcited the reply, from the spokesman 
of the recusants, that they were tired of 
being afraid of the wild Indians ; that 
they objected to marching into the dens 
of tigers ; that, perceiving their rations 
diminished from day to day, they had 
imagined the time not far distant when 
the same would be withdrawn altogeth- 



er. It was curious, as it seemed to Mar- 
coy when the argument was rehearsed 
to him presently, that the fellows made 
no complaint of being footsore, over- 
charged with burdens or conducted into 
paths too difficult for them. A jarking 
admiration for the vigor with which, after 
all, they played their crushing part of 
beasts of burden, procured them immu- 
nity from further punishment after their 
return. Their bivouacs were simply 
watched on the succeeding nights by 
Bolivian sentinels. 

After a few minutes allowed the stray- 
ed sheep to rub their bruises, the march 
was continued. The afternoon afforded 
a succession of the same sandy river- 
banks, dressed with reeds, false maize, 
calceolarias and purple passion-flowers, 
and yielding for sole booty a braxe of 
wild black ducks, and an opossum hold- 
ing in her pouch five saucy and scolding 
little ones. The natural civet employed 
as a cosmetic by this animal forbade the 
notion of using it for food, and it was 
thrown with its family into the river, 
after being deprived of its glossy skin. 

As evening approached, and as all 
eyes were exploring the banks for a suit- 
able camping-ground, a spacious and 
even beach was fixed upon as offering 
all the requisite conveniences. It was 
agreed to halt there. Attaining the 
locality, however, they were amazed to 
find all the traces of a previous occupa- 
tion. Several sheds, formed of bamboo 
hurdles set up against the ground with 
sticks, like traps, were grouped together. 
Under each was a hearth, a simple ex- 
cavation, two feet across and a few inches 
deep, and filled with ashes. A few ar- 
rows, feathers and rude pieces of pottery 
were scattered around. They greeted 
these Indian relics as Crusoe did the 
footprints of the savages. Nor was it 
more reassuring to observe, among other 
callers like themselves who had left their 
visiting-cards at the doors since the de- 
parture of the proprietors, the sign-man- 
ual of jaguars and tapirs, whose foot- 
prints were plainly visible on the gravel. 

A close examination was made of 
every detail pertaining to the huts and 
their accessories, and the interpreters 



46 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE- PLANT IN PERU. 



were asked if it would be prudent to en- I Pepe Garcia and Aragon were of opinion 
camp in a spot thus leased in advance. ] that it would be better to pass the night 




there, assuring their employers that theie 
would be no danger in sleeping among 
the teraphim of the savages, provided 



that nothmg v\as touched or displaced 
Their motion was promptly adopted, to 
the great discomfiture of the porters, who 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



47 



were poised on one foot ready for flight. 
A salute of five shots was fired, with a 
vague intention of giving any listeners 
the highest possible opinion of the white 
explorers as a military power. An enor- 
mous fire was kindled, sentinels were 
posted, and the party turned in, taking 
care, however, during the whole night 
to close but one eye at a time. 

Day commenced to blush, when all 
ears were assaulted by a concerted howl, 
proceeding from behind a bed of canes 
on the other side of the river. "Alerta ! 
los Chunchos f cried the sentinel. The 
three words produced a startling effect : 
the porters sprang up like frightened 
deer ; Mr. Marcoy grasped a sheaf of 
pencils and a box of water-colors with 
a warlike air, and the colonel's lips were 
crisped into a singular smile, indicative of 
lively emotions. Hardly were the trav- 
elers clothed and armed when the reeds 
parted with a rattling noise, and three 
nude Indians, sepia-colored and crowned 
with tufts of hair like horses' tails, leaped 
out like jacks-in-the-box. At sight of 
the party standing to receive them they 
redoubled their clamor, then, flourishing 
their arms and legs and turning con- 
tinually round, they gradually revolved 
into the presence of the explorers. They 
selected as chiefs and sachems of the 
party such as bore weapons, being the 
colonel, Marcoy and the two interpreters. 
These they clasped in a warm, fulsome 
embrace : they were smeared from head 
to foot with rocoa (crude arnotta), and 
their passage through the river having 
dissolved this pigment, they printed 
themselves off, in this act of amity, upon 
the persons and clothing of their hosts. 
While the white men, with a very bad 
grace, were cleaning off these tokens of 
natural affection, the new-comers went 
on to present their civilities all around. 
Two of the porters they recognized at 
once, with their eagle eyesight, from 
having relieved them of their shirts 
while the latter were working out some 
penalty at the governor's farm of Sausi- 
pata, and proceeded to claim a warm 
acquaintance on that basis ; but the 
bearers, with equally lively memories 
of the affront, responded simply with a 



frown and the epithet of Siia-sica — double 
thief. 

Pepe Garcia undertook a colloquy, and 
Aragon, not to be behindhand, flashed a 
few words across the conversation, right 
and left as it were, his expressions ap- 
pearing to be in a different tongue from 
those used by the chief interpreter, and 
both utterly without perceptible resem- 
blance to the rolling consonants and 
gutturals of the savages. Marcoy im- 
bibed a strong impression that the only 
terms understood in common were the 
words of Spanish with which the palaver 
was thickly interlarded. This was the 
first time the interpreters were put on 
their mettle in a strictly professional 
sense, and the test was not altogether 
triumphant. However, by a careful 
raising of the voice in all difficult pas- 
sages, and a wild, expressive pantomime, 
an understanding was arrived at. 

The visitors belonged to the tribe of 
Siriniris, inhabiting the space comprised 
between the valleys of Ocongate and 
OUachea, and extending eastwardly as 
far as the twelfth degree. They lived at 
peace with their neighbors, the Huat- 
chipayris and the Pukiris. For several 
days the reports of the Christian guns 
[tasa-tasa) had advertised them of the 
presence of white men in the valley, 
and, curious to judge of their numbers, 
they had approached.- They had form- 
ed a cunning escort to the party, always 
faithful but never seen, since the en- 
campment at Maniri : every camping- 
ground since that particular bivouac 
they faithfully described. They were, 
of course, in particular and direful need 
of sirnias and bambas (knives and hatch- 
ets), but their fears of the tasa-tasa, or 
guns, was still stronger than their desires, 
and their courage had not, until they 
saw the strangers domiciled as guests in 
their own habitations, attained the firm- 
ness and consistency necessary for a 
personal approach. The three dancing 
ambassadors were ministers plenipoten- 
tiary on the part of their tribe, located 
in a bamboo metropolis five miles off. 

The white men could not well avoid 
laying down their tasa-tasa and disburs- 
ing sirutas and bambas. The savages, 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



after this triumph of diplomacy, sudden- 
ly turned, and, thrusting their fingers in 
their mouths, emitted a shrill note, which 
had the effect of enchanting the forest 
of rushes across the river, and causing 
it to give birth to a whole ballet of naked 
coryphei. Nine men, seven women and 
three dogs composed the spectacle, of 
which the masculine part, the human 
and the canine, proceeded to swim the 
stream and fraternize with the strangers. 
The women rested on the bank like riv- 
er-nymphs : their costume was some- 
what less prudish than that of the men, 
the coat of rocoa being confined to their 
faces, which were further decorated with 
joints of reed thrust through the nose 
and ears. A glance of curiosity darted 
across the water by the colonel was sur- 
prised in its flight by the ambassadors, 
who addressed a hasty word or two to 
their ladies : the latter, with one quick 
and cat-Hke gesture, whipped off each a 
branch of the nearest foliage, and were 
dressed in a single instant. 

To reward all these vociferous men- 
dicants with the invaluable cutlery was 
hardly prudent. Seeing the hesitation 
of their visitors, the savages adopted 
other tactics. Hurling themselves across 
the river, they quickly reappeared, arm- 
ed with all the temptations they could 
think of to induce the strangers to barter. 
The scene of these savages coming to 
market was a picturesque one. Enter- 
ing the water, provided with their objects 
of exchange, which they held high above 
their heads, and swimming with the right 
arm only, they began to cut the river di- 
agonally. The lifting of the waves and 
the dash of spray almost concealed the 
lile of dusky heads. Nothing could be 
plainly seen but the left arms, standing 
out of the water as stiff and inflexible 
as so many bars of bronze, relieved 
against the silvery brightness of the 
water. These advancing arms were 
adorned with the material of traffic — 
bird-skins of variegated colors, bows and 
arrows, and live tamed parrots standing 
upon perches of bamboo. The white 
spectators could not but admire the na- 
tive vigor, elegance and promptitude of 
their motions as they rose from the wa- 



ter like Tritons, and, throwing their treas- 
ures down in a heap, bounded forward 
to give their visitors the conventional 
signals of friendship. A rapid bargain 
was concluded, in which the sylvan 
booty of the wild men (not forgetting the 
prudent exaction of their weapons) was 
entirely made over to the custody of the 
explorers in exchange for a few Birming- 
ham knives worth fourpence each. 

However curious and amicable might 
be their new relations with the savages, 
the party were desirous to put an end to 
them as soon as possible. Pepe Garcia 
announced that the pale chiefs, wishing 
to resume their march, were about to 
separate from them. This decision ap- 
peared to be unpleasant or distressful in 
their estimation, and they tried to reverse 
it by all sorts of arguments. No answer 
being volunteered, they shouted to their 
women to await them, and betook them- 
selves to walking with the party. One 
of the three ambassadors, a graceful 
rogue of twenty-five, marked all over 
with rocoa and lote, so as to earn for 
himself the nickname of "the Panther," 
gamboled and caracoled in front of the 
procession as if to give it an entertain- 
ment. His two comrades had garroted 
with their arms the neck of the chief in- 
terpreter : another held Juan of Afagon 
by the skirt of his blouse, and regulated 
his steps by those of the youth. This 
accord of barbarism and civilization had 
in it something decidedly graceful, and 
rather pathetic : if ever the language 
natural to man was found, the medium 
in circulation before our sickly machinery 
of speech came to be invented, it was in 
this concert of persuasive action and 
tender cooing notes. The main body 
of the Siriniris marched pellmell along 
with the porters, whom this vicinage 
made exceedingly uncomfortable, and 
who were perspiring in great drops. 

At the commencement of a wood the 
whites embraced the occasion to take 
formal leave of their new acquaintances. 
As they endeavored to turn their backs 
upon them they were at once surround- 
ed by the whole band, crying and ges- 
ticulating, and opposing their departure 
with a sort of determined playfulness 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



49 



At the same time a word often repeated, 
the word Hiiatmmio, began to enter large- 
ly into their conversation, and piqued 
the curiosity of the historiographer. 
Marcoy begged the interpreter to pro- 
cure him the explanation of this perpet- 
ual shibboleth. Half by signs, half in 
the polyglot jargon which he had been 
employing with the Siriniris, Garcia 
managed to understand that the word 
in question was the name of their vil- 
lage, situated at a small distance and in 
a direction which they indicated. In 
this retreat, they said, no inhabitants re- 
mained but women, children and old men, 
the rest of the braves being absent on a 
chase. They proposed a visit to their 
capital, where the strangers, they said, 
honored and cherished by the tribe, 
might pass many enviable days. 

The proposed excursion, which would 
cause a loss of considerable time and a 
deflection from the inteuded route, was 
declined in courteous terms by Marcoy 
through the interpretation of Pepe Gar- 
cia. Among civilized folk this urbane 
refusal would have sufficed, but the sav- 
ages, taking such a reply as a challenge 
to verbal warfare, returned to the charge 
with increased tenacity. It were hard 
to say what natural logic they put in 
practice or what sylvan persuasions they 
wrought by, but their peculiar mode of 
stroking the white men's backs with their 
hands, and the softer and still softer in- 
flections which they introduced into their 
voices, would have melted hearts of 
marble. In brief, the civilized portion 
adopted the more weakly part and allow- 
ed themselves to be led by the savage 
portion. 

The colonel and Pepe Garcia were still 
more easily persuaded than Mr. Marcoy, 
and only awaited his adhesion. When 
it was finally announced the Siriniris re- 
newed their gambols and uttered shouts 
of delight. They then took the head of 
the excursion. A singularity in their 
guides, which quickly attracted the no- 
tice of the explorers, was the perfect in- 
difference with which they took either 
the clearings or the thickets in their path. 
Where the strangers were afraid of tear- 
ing their garments, these unprotected 
4 



savages had no care whatever for their 
skins. It is true that their ingenuity in 
gliding through the labyrinth resembled 
magic. However the forest might bristle 
with undergrowth, they never thought 
of breaking down obstacles or of cutting 
them, as the equally practiced Bolivians 
did, with a knife. They contented them- 
selves with putting aside with one hand 
the tufts of foliage as if they had been 
curtains or draperies, and that with an 
easy decision of gesture and an elegance 
of attitude which are hardly found out- 
side of certain natural tribes. 

The city of Huatinmio proved to be 
a group of seven large sheds perched 
among plaintains and bananas, divided 
into stalls, and affording shelter for a 
hundred individuals. The most sordid 
destitution — if ignorance of comfort can 
be called destitution — reigned every- 
where around. The women were espe- 
cially hideous, and on receipt of presents 
of small bells and large needles becanie 
additionally disagreeable in their antics 
of gratitude. The bells were quickly in- 
serted in their ears, and soon the whole 
village was in tintinnabulation. 

A night was passed in the hospitality 
of these barbarians, who vacated their 
largest cabin for their guests. A repast 
was served, consisting of stewed monkey: 
no salt was used in the cookery, but on 
the other hand a dose of pimento was 
thrown in, which brought tears to the 
eyes of the strangers and made them 
run to the water-jar as if to save their 
lives. The evening was spent in a gen- 
eral conversation with the Siriniris, who 
were completely mystified by the form 
and properties of a candle which Mr. 
Marcoy drew from his baggage and ig- 
nited. The wild men passed it from 
hand to hand, examining it, and singeing 
themselves in turn. Still another marvel 
was the sheet of paper on which the 
artist essayed a portrait of one of his 
hosts. The finished sketch did not ap- 
pear to attract them at all, or to raise 
in their minds the faintest association 
with the human form, but the texture 
and whiteness of the sheet excited their 
lively admiration, and they passed it from 
one to another with many exclamatiori? 



50 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE- PLANT IN PERU. 



of wonder. Meantime, a number of 
questions were suggested and proposed 
through the interpreter. 

The formahty of marriage among the 
Siriniris was found to be quite unknown ; 
the most rudimentary idea of divine wor- 
ship could not be discovered ; the treat- 
ment of the aged was shown to be con- 
temptuous and neglectful in the extreme ; 
and the lines of demarcation with the 
beasts seemed to be but feebly traced. 
Finally, Mr. Marcoy begged the inter- 
preter to propound the delicate inquiry 
whether, among the viands with which 
they nourished or had formerly nourish- 
ed themselves, human flesh had found 
a place. Garcia hesitated, and at first 
declined to push the interrogation, but 
after some persuasion consented. The 
Siriniris were not in the least shocked at 
the question, and answered that the flesh 
of man, especially in infancy, was a de- 
licious food, far better than the monkey, 
the tapir or the peccary ; that their na- 
tion, in the days of its power, frequently 
used it at the great feasts ; but that the 
difficulty of procuring such a rarity had 
increased until they were now forced to 
strike it from their bill of fare. 

The night passed without disturbance, 
and the next day's parting was accom- 
panied by reiterated requests for a repe- 
tition of the visit. The Panther, who 
since their arrival had oppressed the 
travelers with a multitude of officious at- 
tentions, escorted them into the woods, 
and there took leave of them with a ges- 
ture of his hand, reheving their eyes of 
his slippery, snake-like robe of spots. A 
knife from their stores, slung round his 
neck like a locket, smote his breast at 
each step as he danced backward, and 
a couple of large fish-hooks glanced in 
his ears. 

With a feeling of relief and satisfied 
curiosity the exploring party left behind 
them the traces of these children of Na- 
ture, and returned toward the river. 
The cascarilleros, all for their business, 
had regretted the waste of time, and now 
betook themselves to an examination of 
the woods with all their energy. After 
several hours of march their efforts were 
crowned with success. Eusebio present- 



ly rejoined his employers, showing leaves 
and berries of the Cinchona scrobiculata 
and pubescens : the peons, on their side, 
had discovered isolated specimens of 
the Calisaya, which, joined with those 
found on Mount Camanti, indicated an 
extended belt of that precious species. 
This was not the best. A veritable treas- 
ure which they had unearthed, worth all 
the others put together, was a line of 
those violet cinchonas which the native 
exporters call Cascarilla inorada, and 
the botanists Ci7ichona Boliviana. The 
trees of this kind were grouped in threes 
and fours, and extended for half a mile. 
This repeated proof that the most val- 
uable of all the cinchonas, together with 
nearly every one of the others, were to 
be discovered in a small radius along 
the valley of the Cconi, filled the explo- 
rers with triumph, and demonstrated be- 
yond a doubt the sagacity of Don Santo 
Domingo in organizing the expedition. 

The purpose and intention of the jour- 
ney was now abundantly fulfilled. Had 
the travelers rested satisfied with the 
liberal indications they had found, and 
consented to place themselves between 
the haunts of the savages and the abodes 
of civilization, with a tendency and de- 
termination toward the latter, they might 
have returned with safety as with glory. 
The estimate made by Eusebio, how- 
ever, of the trend or direction of the 
calisaya groves, induced him to forsake 
the bed of the Cconi, and strike south- 
eastwardly, so as to cross the Ollachea 
and the Ayapata. 

" But the mountains are disappearing," 
hazarded Mr. Marcoy. "Will not the 
cinchonas disappear with them ?'.' 

"Oh," answered the majordomo, like 
a pedagogue to a confident school-boy, 
" the senor knows better how to put ink 
or color on a sheet of paper than how to 
judge of these things. The plain, the 
campo llajio, is far enough to the east. 
Before we should see the disappearance 
of the mountains, we should have to 
cross as many hills and ravines as we 
have left behind us." 

" What do you think of doing, then ?" 
naturally demanded Marcoy, who had 
long since begun to feel that the expedi- 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU 



51 



tion had but one chief, and that was the 
sepia-colored cascarillero from BoUvia. 

"Everything and nothing," answered 
Eusebio. 

These enigmas always carry the day. 
The apparatus of march was once more 
set in motion toward the adjacent water- 
sheds. After a considerable journey — 
rewarded, it must be said, with a succes- 
sion of cinchona discoveries — they halt- 
ed near a clearing in the forest, where 
large heaps of stones and pebbles, ar- 
ranged in semicircles, attracted their at- 
tention. The cascarilleros explained this 
appearance as due to former arrange- 
ments for gold-washing in an old river- 
bed, the San Gavan or the Ayapata, 
that had now changed its locality. 

While examining the unusual appear- 
ance an abominable clamor burst from 
the woods around, and a band of Siriniris 
appeared, led by a lusty ruffian crowned 
with oriole feathers, whom the travelers 
recognized as having been among their 
previous acquaintances. 

The encounter was very disagreeable, 
but the strangers determined to make 
the best of it. The manner of this band 
of Indians was somewhat different from 
that of the others. They brought noth- 
ing for barter, and had an indescribably 
coarse and hardy style of behavior. 

The travelers determined to buy a 
little information, if nothing better, with 
their knives and fish-hooks. Garcia was 
accordingly instructed to demand the 
meaning of the heaps and causeways of 
stones. The savages laughed at first, 
but fi.nally informed the visitors that the 
constructions which puzzled them so had 
been made by people of their own race 
many years ago, for the purpose of gath- 
ering gold from the river which used to 
run along there, but which now flowed 
seven miles off. 

This information was dear to the his- 
toric instinct of Marcoy. He spoke, by 
his usual proxy, to the Indian of the 
oriole, commanding him not to begin 
every explanation by laughing, as he 
had been doing, but to answer intelli- 
gently, promising a reward of several 
knives. The savage exchanged a rapid 
glance with his fellows, and then he and 



they stood up as stiff and mute as the 
trees. Marcoy then asked him if he had 
never heard hisTfather or his grandfather 
speak of the great city of San Gavan, 
built hereabouts formerly by the Spanish 
chevaliers, and which the Caranga and 
Suchimani Indians from the Inambari 
River had destroyed by fire. 

The evident recognition of this legend 
by the savages, and their rapid exchange 
among themselves of the words sacapa 
huayris Ipafios, induced Marcoy to ask 
if they could guide them to the site of 
the former city. They answered that a 
day's march would be sufficient, and 
pointed with their arms in the direction 
of north-north-west. 

The temptation to see the place whose 
golden renown, after having made the 
tour of the American continent, had 
reached Spain and the world at large, 
was too strong to be resisted. Colonel 
Perez, besides the magic attraction which 
the mention of gold had for him, felt his 
national pride touched by the idea of a 
place where his compatriots had added 
such magnificence to the Spanish name, 
and gained so many ingots of gold by 
paddling in the streams. The cascari- 
lleros were delighted to extend their jour- 
ney, in hopes of yet larger discoveries. 
As for the porters, since the manifesta- 
tions of the savages they clung to the 
party with as much anxiety as they had 
ever shown to escape from it. 

In 1767 the city of San Gavan, re- 
maining intact amid the ruin of all its 
neighbors, was the sole disburser of the 
riches of the Caravaya Valley. The 
gold-dust, collected throughout the whole 
territory on a government monopoly, was 
brought thither upon the backs of In- 
dians, melted into ingots, and distributed 
to Lima and the world at large. On the 
night of the i 5th and i6th of December 
in that year the wealthy city was fired by 
the Carangas and the Suchimanis, and 
all the inhabitants slain with arrows or 
clubs. The first lords of the soil had re- 
sumed their rights. 

When the news of the event was 
brought to Lima, the viceroy of the pe- 
riod, Antonio Amat, swore on a piece of 
the true cross to exterminate every In- 



52 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



dian in Peru. It is to the persuasions of 
his favorite, Mariquita Gallegas, that the 
preservation of the native tribes from a 
bloody extirpation is due. This woman, 
La Perichola, whose caricatured hkeness 
we see in the most agreeable of Offen- 
bach's operas, and whose deeds of mercy 
and edifying end in a con- 
vent entitle her to s o m e 
charitable consideration, 
persuaded her royal lover to 
operate on the natives with 
missionaries and teachers 
rather than with fire and 
sword. Antonio Amat 
yielded, and the Indians 
have survived. 

Let no traveler go to 
South America and cross 
the Andes with the idea of 
unearthing a Nineveh or a 
Babylon on the site of San 
Gavah. The emissaries of 
Don Santo Domingo were 
quickly standing, among 
the grinning and amused 
Indians, on the locality of 
the Golden Depot of San 
Gavan. But Nature had 
thoroughly reclaimed her 
own, and the place, indi- 
cated again and again by 
the savages with absolute 
unanimity, showed noth- 
ing but mounds of fern 
and moss under canopies 
of forest trees. 

A day's rest and a sketch 
or two were consecrated by 
M a r c y to this historic 
spot, the grave of a civil- 
ization. It had been well 
if he had restrained his 
feelings of romance, and 
betaken himself with his companions to 
the hoijieward track. 

As the explorers were breakfasting in 
the morning on a squirrel and a couple 
of birds shot among the vanished streets 
of San Gavan, a disagreeable incident 
supervened. The wild Indians had dis- 
appeared over-night. But now, seem- 
ingly born instantaneously from the 
trees, a throng of Siriniris burst upon 



the scene, rushing up to the travelers, 
straining them repeatedly in a rude em- 
brace, then leaving them, then assault- 
ing them again, and accompanying 
every contact with the eternal cry, Siriita 
inta menea — "Give me a knife." Each 
member of the troop had now six sav- 




' ANOTHER SAVAGE HAD FOUND A FAIR OF LINEN 
PANTALOONS." — P. 53. 



ages at his heels, and they were not 
those of the day before, but a new and 
rougher band. The chiefs of the party 
rushed together and brandished their 
muskets. This forced the savages to re- 
tire, but gave to the rencounter that hos- 
tile air which, in consideration of the 
disparity of numbers, ought at all haz- 
ards to have been avoided. The wild 
men quickly formed a circle around the 



#>^ 



SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. 



53 



artillery. The latter, fearing for their por- 
ters and the precious baggage, leaped 
through this circle and joined their ser- 
vants, making believe to cock their fire- 
arms. Upon this the Indians, half 
afraid of the guns, vanished into the 
woods, first picking up whatever clothing 
and utensils they could lay their hands 
on. In an instant they were showing 
these trophies to their rightful owners 
from a; safe distance, laughing as if they 
would split their sides. One of the 
naked rascals had seized a flannel un- 
dershirt of the colonel's, which was dry- 
ing on a branch. His efforts to intro- 
duce his great feet into the sleeves were 
excruciating. Another savage had found 
a pair of linen pantaloons, which he was 
endeavoring to put on like a coat, ap- 
pearing much embarrassed with the pos- 
terior portion, which completely masked 
his face. Aragon had seen a young 
reprobate of his own age make off with 
a pair of socks of his property. Detect- 
ing the rogue half hidden by a tree, the 
mozo made a sortie, seized the Indian, 
and by a violent shake brought the 
property out of his mouth, where it had 
been concealed as in a natural pocket. 

The travelers immediately threw them- 
selves into marching order and took up 
their line of route. The savages fol- 
lowed. At the first obstacle, a mass of 
matted trees, they easily rejoined the 
party of whites. 

Then, for the first time, the idea of 
their power seemed to strike them, and 
they precipitated themselves upon the 
porters, who took to flight, rolling from 
under their packs like animals of burden. 
In a moment every article of baggage, 
every knife and weapon, was seized, and 
the red-skins, singing and howling, were 
making off through the woods. Among 
them was now seen the Siriniri with 
orioles' feathers, who must have guided 
them to their prey. 

The expedition was pillaged, and pil- 
laged as a joke. The thieves were heard 
laughing as they scampered off like deer 
through the woods. 

It was hard to realize at once the gravity 
of the misfortune. No one was hurt, no 
one was insulted. But provision.s, cloth- 



ing, articles of exchange and weapons 
were all gone, except such arms and 
ammunition as the travelers carried on 
their persons. A collection of cinchonas 
was in possession of one of the Bolivians, 
though it represented but a fraction of 
the species discovered. The besiegers, 
however, had disappeared, and a west- 
erly march was taken up. Good time 
was made that day, and a heavy night'-j 
sleep was the consequence. With the 
morning light came the well-remember- 
ed and hateful cry, and the little army 
found itself surrounded by a throng of 
merry naked demons, among whom were 
some who had not profited by the dis- 
tribution of the spoils. At the magic 
word siruta all these new-comers rushed 
in a mass upon the white men. Marcoy 
managed to slip his fine ivory-handled 
machete within his trowser leg, but every 
other cutting tool disappeared as if by 
magic from the possession of the ex- 
plorers. The shooting-utensils the sav- 
ages, believing them haunted, would not 
touch. Then, half irritated at the ex- 
haustion of the booty, the amiable chil- 
dren of Nature burst out into open de- 
rision. The artists of the tribe, filling 
their palms with' rocoa, and moistening 
the same with saliva, went up to their 
late patrons and began to decorate their 
faces. The latter, judging patience their 
best policy, sat in silence while the deli- 
cate fancy of the savages expended itself 
in arabesques and flourishes. Perez and 
Aragon had their eyes surrounded with 
red spectacles. The face of Marcoy, 
covered with a heavy beard, only allow- 
ed room for a "W" on the forehead, 
and Pepe Garcia was quit for a set of 
interlacings like a checkerboard. Hav- 
ing thus signed their marks upon their 
visitors, the aborigines retired, catching 
up here and there a stray ball of cord 
or a strip of beef, saluting with the hand, 
and vanishing into the woods with the 
repeated compliment, Em^iiki — " I am 
off." 

The victims rested motionless for fif- 
teen minutes : then pellmell, through the 
thickest of the brush and down the steep- 
est of the hill, blotted out under gigantic 
ferns and covered by umbrageous vines, 



54 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



stealing along water-courses and skirting 
the sides of the mountains, they rushed 
precipitately westward. 

Two months after the priest of Marca- 
pata had dismissed with his benediction 
the party of confident and enthusiastic 
explorers, he received again his strayed 
flock, but this time in rags, armed with 
ammunitionless guns and one poor knife, 
wasted by hunger, baked by the sun, and 
tattooed like Polynesians by the briers 
and insects. The good man could not 
repress a tear. "Ah, my son," said he 
as he clasped Marcoy's hand, " see what 
it costs to go hunting the cascarilla in 
the lai>d of the infidels !" 

The exploradons started by Don Juan 
Sanz de Santo Domingo came to prof- 
itable result, but not to his advantage. 
Three weeks after the pioneers arrived 
again in Cuzco, Don Juan started an- 
other expedition, on a much larger scale, 
to accomplish the working of the cin- 
chona valleys, under charge of the same 
Bolivians, who could make like a bee 
for every tree they had discovered. A 
detachment of soldiers was to protect 
the party, and the working force was 



more than double. Finally, the night 
before the intended stait, the Bolivian 
cascarilleros, with their examinador, dis- 
appeared together. It is probable thai 
Don Juan's scheme, nursed, according 
to custom, with too much publicity, had 
attracted the attention of the merchants 
of Cuzco, who had found it profitable to 
buy off the bark-searchers for their own 
interest. 

The crash of this immense enterprise 
was too much for Don Juan. Threaten- 
ed with creditors, Jews, escribanos and 
the police, he retired to a silver-mine he 
was opening in the province of Abancay. 
This mine, in successful operation, he 
depended on for satisfying his creditors. 
He found it choked up, destroyed with 
a blast of powder by some enemy. Un- 
able to bear the disappointment, Don 
Juan blew out his brains in the office 
belonging to his mine. A month after- 
ward, Don Eugenio Mendoza y Jara, the 
bishop of Cuzco, sent a couple of In- 
dians for the body, with instructions to 
throw it into a ditch : the men attached 
a rope to the feet and dragged it to a 
ravine, where dogs and vultures disposed 
of the unhallowed remains. 



A GLANCE AT THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHP:NS. 



TH E day is a happy one to the student- 
traveler from the Western World in 
which he first looks upon the lovely plain 
of Athens. Rounding the point where 
Hymettus thrusts his huge length into 
the sea, the long, featureless mountain- 
wall of Southern Attica suddenly breaks 
down, and gives place to a broad ex- 
panse of fertile and well-cultivated soil, 
sloping gently back with ever-nai rowing 
bounds until it reaches the foot-hills of 
lofty Pentelicus. The wooded heights 
of Parnes enclose it on the north, while 
bald Hymettus rears an impassable bar- 
rier along the south. In front of the 
gently recurved shore stretch the smooth 



waters of the Gulf of Salamis, while be- 
yond rises range upon range of lofty 
mountain-peaks with strikingly varied 
outline, terminating on the one hand in 
the towering cone of Egina, and on the 
other in the pyramidal, fir-clad summit 
of Cithaeron. Upon the plain, at the 
distance of three or four miles from the 
sea, are several small rocky hills of pic- 
turesque appearance, isolated and seem- 
ingly independent, but really parts of a 
low range parallel to Hymettus. Upon 
one of the most considerable of these, 
whose precipitous sides make it a natural 
fortress, stood the Acropolis, and upon 
the group of lesser heights around and 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



55 



in the valleys between clustered the 
dwellings of ancient Athens. 

It was a fitting site for the capital of a 
people keenly sensitive to beauty, and 
destined to become the leaders of the 



world in matters of taste, especially in 
the important department of the Fine 
Arts. Nowhere are there more charm- 
ing contrasts of mountain, sea and plain 
— nowhere a more perfect harmony of 




picturesque ettect Ihe sea ib not a 
dreary waste of waters without bounds, 
but a smiling gulf mirroring its moun- 
tain-walls and winding about embosomed 
isles, yet ever broadening as it recedes, 
and suggesting the mighty flood beyond 



from which it springs. The plain is not 
an illimitable expanse over which the 
weary eye ranges in vain in quest of 
some resting-place, but is so small as to 
be embraced in its whole contour in a 
single view, while its separate features — 



56 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



the broad, dense belt of olives which 
marks the bed of its principal stream, 
the ancient Cephissus, the vineyards, the 
grain-fields and the sunny hillside pas- 
tures — are made to produce their full im- 
pression. The mountains are not near 
enough to be obtrusive, much less op- 
pressive ; neither are they so distant as 
to be indistinct or to seem insignificant. 
Seen through the clear air, their naked 
summits are so sharply defined and so 
individual in appearance as to seem al- 
most like sculptured forms chiseled out 
of the hard rock. 

The city which rose upon this favor- 
ed spot was worthy of its surroundings. 
The home of a free and enterprising race 
endowed with rare gifts of intellect and 
sensibility, and ever on the alert for im- 
provement, it became the nurse of letters 
and of arts, while the luxury begotten of 
prosperity awakened a taste for adorn- 
ment,'and the wealth acquired by an ex- 
tended commerce furnished the means 
of gratifying it. The age of Pericles 
was the period of the highest national 
development. At that time were reared 
the celebrated structures in honor of the 
virgin-goddess who was the patron of 
Athens — the Parthenon, the Propylaea, 
the Erechtheum — which crowned the 
Acropolis, and were the glory of the city 
as they were the masterpieces of Grecian 
architecture. During the preceding half 
century many works of utility and of 
splendor had been constructed, and the 
city now became renowned not only in 
Greece, but throughout the ancient world, 
for the magnificence of its public build- 
ings. Thucydides, writing about this 
time, says that should Athens be destroy- 
ed, posterity would infer from its ruins 
that the city had been twice as populous 
as it actually was. Demosthenes speaks 
of the strangers who came to visit its 
attractions. But the changes of twenty- 
three centuries have passed upon this 
splendor — a sad story of violence and 
neglect — and the queenly city has long 
been in the condition of ruin imagined by 
Thucydides. Still, the spell of her influ- 
ence is not broken, and the charm which 
once drew so many visitors to her shrines 
still acts powerfully on the hearts of schol- 



ars in all lands, who, having looked up to 
her poets, orators and philosophers as 
teachers and loved them as friends, long 
to visit their haunts, to stand where they 
stood, to behold the scenes which they 
were wont to view, and to gaze upon 
what may remain of the great works of 
art upon which their admiration was 
bestowed. 

So the student-pilgrim from the West- 
ern World with native ardor strains his 
sight to catch the first gMmpse of the 
Athenian plain and city. He is fresh 
from his studies, and familiar with what 
books teach of the geography of Greece 
and the topography of Athens. He 
needs not to be informed which moun- 
tain-range is Parnes, and which Penteli- 
cus — which island is Salamis, and which 
Egina. Yet much of what he sees is a 
revelation to him. The mountains are 
higher, more varied and more beautiful 
than he had supposed, Lycabettus and 
the Acropolis more imposing, Pentelicus 
farther away, and the plain larger, the 
gulf narrower, and Egina nearer and 
more mountainous, than he had fancied. 
He is astonished at the smallness of the 
harbor at Peirasus, having insensibly 
formed his conception of its size from 
the notices of the mighty fleets which 
sailed from it in the palmy days when 
Athens was mistress of the seas. He is 
not prepared to see the southern shore of 
Salamis so near to the Peiraeus, though 
it explains the close connection between 
that island and Athens, and throws some 
light upon the great naval defeat of the 
Persians. In short, while every object 
is recognized as it presents itself, yet 
a more correct conception is formed of 
its relative position and aspect from a 
single glance of the eye than had been 
acquired from books during years of 
study. 

Arrived at the city, his experience is 
the same. He needs no guide to con- 
duct him to its antiquities, nor cicerone 
to explain in bad French or worse Eng- 
lish their names and history. Still, 
unexpected appearances present them- 
selves not unfrequently. Hastening to- 
ward the Acropolis, he will first inspect 
the remains of the great theatre of Uio- 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



57 



nysus, so familiar to him as the place 
where, in the presence of all the people 
and many strangers, were acted the plays 
of his favorite poets, Eschylus and Soph- 
ocles, and where they won many prizes. 
Hurrying over the eastern brow of the 
hill, he comes suddenly upon the spot, 
enters at the summit, as many an Athe- 
nian did in the olden time, and is smit- 
ten with amazement at the first glance, 






and led to question whether this be in- 
deed the site of the ancient theatre. He 
finds, it is true, the topmost seats cut in 
the solid rock, row above row, stripped 
now of their marble lining and weather- 
worn, but yet the genuine ancient seats of 
the upper tier. These he expected to find. 
But whence are those fresh seats which 
fill the lower part of the hollow, arranged 
as neatly as if intended for immediate 






^ *^ ... -- - — 'iX Sr^ *t5 




» *:i-1. 








THEATRE OF DIONYSUS (BACCHUS), 



use ? and whence the massive stage be- 
yond ? He bethinks himself that he has 
heard of recent excavations under the 
patronage of the government, and closer 
inspection shows that these are actually 
the lower seats of the theatre in the time 
of the emperor Hadrian, whose favorite 
residence was Athens, and who did so 
much to embellish the city. The front 
seats consist of massive stone chairs, 
each inscribed with the name of its oc- 
cupant, generally the priestess of some 
one of the numerous gods worshiped by 
that people so given to idolatry. In the 



centre of the second row is an elevated 
throne inscribed with the name of Ha- 
drian. The stage is seen to be the an- 
cient Greek stage enlarged to the Roman 
size to suit the demands of a later style 
of theatrical representation. 

After looking in vain for the seal oc- 
cupied by the priestess of the Unknown 
God, our traveler passes on and enters 
with a beating heart the charmed precincts 
of the Acropolis itself. The Propylica, 
which he has been accustomed to re- 
gard too exclusively as a mere entrance- 
gate to the glories beyond, impresses 



58 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



him with its size and grandeur, and the 
little temple of Victory by its side with 
its elegance.* But the steepness of the 
ascent perplexes him. It seems imprac- 
ticable for horses, yet he knows by un- 



exceptionable testimony that t)it Athe- 
nian youth prided themselves upon driv- 
ing their matched steeds in tne great 
Panathenaic procession which once ev- 
ery four years wound up the hill, ttanng 




the sacred peplus to the temple of the 
goddess. A closer examination reveals 

* The latter contains, among other relics of a balus- 
trade which protected and adorned the platform of the 
temple, the exquisitely graceful torso of Victory unty- 
ing her sandals, of which casts are to be seen in most 
?f the imiseums of Europe 



the transverse creases of the pavement 
designed to give a footing to the beasts, 
as well as the marks of the chariot- 
wheels. Nevertheless, the ascent (and 
much more the descent) must have been 
a perilous undertaking, unless the teams 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



59 



were better broken than the various ac- 
counts of chariot-races furnished by the 
poets would indicate. Entering beneath 
the great gate, a httle distance forward 
to the left may readily be found the site 
of the colossal bronze statue of the war- 
rior-goddess in complete armor, formed 



by Phidias out of the spoils taken at 
Marathon. The square base, partly 
sunk in the uneven rock, is as perfect as 
if just put in readiness to receive the 
pedestal of that famous work. A road 
bending to the right and slightly hol- 
lowed out of the rock leads to the Par- 




VICTORY UNTYING HER SANDALS. 



thenon. The outer platform which sus- 
tains this celebrated temple is partly 
cut from the rock of the hill and partly 
built up of common limestone. The 
inner one of three courses, as well as the 
whole superstructure, is formed of Pente- 
lic marble of a compact crystalline struc- 
ture and of dazzlinsj whiteness. Long 



exposure has not availed to destroy its 
lustre, but only to soften its tone. The 
visitor, planting himself at the western 
front, is in a position to gain some ade- 
quate idea of the perfection of the noble 
building. The interior and central parts 
suffered the principal injury from the 
explosion of the Turkish powder maga- 



6o 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



zine in 1687. The western front remains 
nearly entire. It has been despoiled, 
indeed, of its movable ornaments. The 
statues which filled the pediment are 
gone, with the exception of a fragment 



or two. The sculptured slabs have been 
removed from the spaces between the 
triglyphs, and the gilded shields which 
hung beneath have been taken down. 
Of the magnificent frieze, representing 




the procession of the great quadrennial 
festival, only the portion surrounding 
the western vestibule is still in place.* 

* Among the figures of this bas-relief, twelve are 
recognized by their lofty stature and sitting posture 
as those of divinities. One group is represented in 
rhe engraving. 



Still, as these were strictly decorations, 
and wholly subordinate to the organic 
parts of the structure, their presence, 
while it would doubtless greatly enhance 
the effect of the whole, is not felt to be 
essential to its completeness,. The whole 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



61 



Doric columns still bear the massive en- 
tal:)lature sheltered by the covering roof. 
The simple greatness of the conception, 
the just proportion of the several parts, 
together %\ ith the elaborate finishing of 



the whole work, invest it with a charm 
such as the works of man seldom pos- 
sess — the pure and lasting pleasure 
which flows from apparent perfection. 
Enteung the piincipil ^paitment of the 




■building, traces are seen of the stucco 
and pictures with which the walls were 
covered when it was fitted up as a Chris- 
tian church in the Byzantine period. 
Near the centre of the marble pavement 
is a rectangular space laid with dark 



stone from the Peireeus or from KIcusis. 
It marks the probable site of the colos- 
sal precious statue of the goddess in gold 
and ivory — one of the most celebrated 
works of Phidias. The smaller apart 
ment beyond, accessible only from the 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



opposite front of the temple, was used 
by the state as a place of deposit and 
safekeeping for bullion and other val- 
uables in the care of the state treasurer. 
Having examined the great temple, 
and tested the curvature of its seeming- 
ly horizontal lines by sighting along 
the unencumbered platform, and having 
stopped at several points of the grand 
portico to admire the fine views of the 
city and surrounding country, the trav- 
eler picks his way northward, across a 
thick layer of fragments of columns, 
statues and blocks of marble, toward the 
low-placed, irregular but elegant Erech- 
theum, the temple of the most ancient 
worship and statue of the patron-goddess 
of the city. This building sits close by 
the northern as the Parthenon does by 
the southern wall of the enclosure. It 
has suffered equally with the other from 
the ravages of time, and its ruins, though 
less grand, are more beautiful. Most of 
the graceful Ionic columns are still stand- 
ing, but large portions of the roof and 
entablature have fallen. Fragments of 
decorated cornice strew the ground, some 
of them of considerable length, and af- 
ford a near view of that delicate orna- 
mentation and exquisite finish so rare 
outside the limits of Greece. The ele- 
vated porch of the Caryatides, lately re- 
stored by the substitution of a new figure 
in place of the missing statue now in the 
British Museum, attracts attention as a 
unique specimen of Greek art, and also 
as showing how far a skillful treatment 
will overcome the inherent difficulties of 
a subject. The row of fair maidens look- 
ing out toward the Parthenon do not seem 
much oppressed by the burden which 
rests upon them, while their graceful 
forms lend a pleasing variety to the 
scene. Passing out by the northern 
wing of the Propylaea, a survey is had 
of the numerous fragments of sculpture 
discovered among the ruins upon the 
hill, and temporarily placed in the an- 
cient Pinacotheca. The eye rests upon 
sweet infant faces and upon rugged 
manly ones. Sometimes a single fea- 
ture only remains, which, touched by 
the finger of genius, awakens admira- 
tion. A naked arm severed from the 



trunk, of feminine cast, but with muscles 
tightly strained and hand clenched as in 
agony, will arrest attention and dwell in 
the memory. 

North-west of the Acropolis, across a 
narrow chasm, lies the low, rocky height 
of the Areopagus, accessible at the south- 
east angle by a narrow flight of sixteen 
rudely-cut steps, which lead to a small 
rectangular excavation on the summit, 
which faces the Acropolis, and is sur- 
rounded upon three sides by a double 
tier of benches hewn out of the rock. 
Here undoubtedly the most venerable 
court of justice at Athens had its seat 
and tried its cases in the open air. Here 
too, without doubt, stood the great apostle 
when, with bold spirit and weighty words, 
he declared unto the men of Athens that 
God of whom they confessed their igno- 
rance ; who was not to be represented 
by gold or silver or stone graven by art 
and man's device ; who dwelt not in 
temples made with hands, and needed 
not to be worshiped with men's hands. 
In no other place can one feel so sure 
that he comes upon the very footsteps 
of the apostle, and on no other spot can 
one better appreciate his high gifts as 
an orator or the noble devotion of his 
whole soul to the work of the Master. 
How poor in comparison with his life- 
work appear the performances of the 
greatest of the Athenian thinkers or 
doers ! 

A little more than a quarter of a mile 
west of the Acropolis is another rocky 
hill — the Pnyx — celebrated as the place 
where the assembly of all the citizens 
met to transact the business of the state, 
A large semicircular area was formed, 
partly by excavation, partly by building 
up from beneath, the bounds of which 
can be distinctly traced. Considerable 
remains of the terrace-wall at the foot 
of the slope exist — huge stones twelve 
or fourteen feet in length by eight or ten 
in breadth. The chord of the semicircle 
is near the top of the hill, formed by the 
perpendicular face of the excavated rock, 
and is about four hundred feet in length 
by twenty in depth. Projecting from it 
at the centre, and hewn out of the same 
rock, is the bema or stone platform from 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



63 



which the great orators from the time of 
Themistocles and Aristides, and perhaps 
of Solon, down to the age of Demos- 
thenes and the Attic Ten, addressed the 
mass of their fellow-citizens. It is a 



massive cubic block, with a linear edge 
of eleven feet, standing upon a gradu- 
ated base of nearly equal height, and is 
mounted on either side by a flight of 
nine stone steps. From its connection 




with the most celebrated efforts of some 
of the greatest orators our race has yet 
seen, it is one of the most interesting 
relics in the world, and its solid structure 
will cause it to endure as long as the 
world itself shall stand, unless, as there 



is some reason to apprehend will be the 
case, it is knocked to pieces and carried 
off in the carpet-bags of travelers. No 
traces of the Agora, which occupied the 
shallow valley between the Pnyx and the 
Acropolis, remain. It was the heart of 



64 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OE ATHENS. 



the city, and was adorned with numer- 
ous public buildings, porticoes, temples 
and statues. It was often thronged with 
citizens gathered for purposes of trade, 
discussion, or to hear and tell some new 
thing. 

Half a mile or more to the south-east, 
on the banks of the Ihssus, stood a 
magnificent structure dedicated to Olym- 
pian Zeus — one of the four largest tem- 
ples of Greece, ranking with that of De- 
meter at Eleusis and that of Diana at 
Ephesus. Its foundations remain, and 
sixteen of the huge Corinthian columns 
belonging to its majestic triple colon- 
nade. One of these is fallen. Break- 
ing up into the numerous disks of which 
it was composed — six and a half feet in 
diameter by two or more in thickness — 
and stretching out to a length of over 
sixty feet, it gives an impressive concep- 
tion of the size of these columns, said 
to be the largest standing in Europe. 
The level area of the temple is now used 
as a training-ground for soldiers. Close 
by, and almost in the bed of the stream, 
which is dry the larger part of the year, 
issues from beneath a ledge of rock the 
copious fountain of sweet waters known 
to the ancients as Calirrhoe. It furnish- 
ed the only good drinking-water of the 
city, and was used in all the sacrifices to 
the gods. A little way above, on the op- 
posite bank of the Ilissus, is the site of 
the Panathenaic stadium, whose shape is 
perfectly preserved in the smooth grass- 
grown hollow with semicircular extremi- 
ty which here lies at right angles to the 
stream, between parallel ridges partly 
artificial. 

Northward from the Acropolis, on a 
slight elevation, is the best-preserved 
and one of the most ancient structures 
of Athens — the temple of Theseus, built 
under the administration of Cimon by 
the generation preceding Pericles and 
the Parthenon. It is of the Doric order, 
and shaped like the Parthenon, but con- 
siderably inferior to it in size as well as 
in execution. It has been roofed with 
wood in modern times, and was long 
used as a church, but is now a place of 
deposit for the numerous statues and 
sculptured stones of various kinds — 



mostly sepulchral monuments — which 
have been recently discovered in and 
about the city. They are for the most 
part unimportant as works of art, though 
many are interesting from their antiquity 
or historic associations. Among these 
is the stone which once crowned the 
burial-mound on the plain of Marathon. 
It bears a single figure, said to represent 
the messenger who brought the tidings 
of victory to his countrymen. 

Near the Theseium was the double 
gate (Dipylum) in the ancient wall of 
the city whence issued the Sacred Way 
leading to Eleusis, and bordered, like 
the Appian Way at Rome, with tombs, 
many of them cenotaphs of persons who 
died in the public service and were deem- 
ed worthy of a monument in the public 
burying-ground. Within a few years an 
excavation has been made through an 
artificial mound of ashes, pottery and 
other refuse emptied out of the city, and 
a section of a few rods of this celebrated 
road has been laid bare. The sepul- 
chral monuments are ranged on one 
side rather thickly, and crowd some- 
what closely upon the narrow pavemen , 
They are, for the most part, simple, thick 
slabs of white marble, with a triangular 
or pediment-shaped top, beneath which 
is sculptured in low relief the closing 
scene of the person commemorated, fol- 
lowed by a short inscription. The work 
is done in an artistic style worthy of the 
publicity its location gave it. On one of 
these slabs you recognize the familiar 
full-length figure of Demosthenes, stand- 
ing with two companions and clasping 
in a parting grasp the hand of a woman, 
who is reclining upon her deathbed. 
The inscription is, Collyrion, wife of 
AgathoJt. On another stone of larger 
size is a more imposing piece of sculp- 
ture. A horseman fully armed is thrust- 
ing his spear into the body of his fallen 
foe — a hoplite. The inscription relate? 
that the unhappy foot -soldier fell at 
Corinth by reason of those five ivofds 
of his I — a record intelligible enough, 
doubtless, to his contemporaries, but 
sufficiently obscure and provocative of 
curiosity to later gererations. 

There are other noted structures .it 



THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. 



Athens, such as the Choragic Monu- 
ment of Lysicrates — the highest type of 
the Corinthian order of architecture, as 



the Erechtheum is of the Ionic and the 
Parthenon of the Doric — but want of 
space forbids any further description of 




MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES. 



them. Let the American traveler visit 
Athens with the expectation of finding a 
city occupying the most charming of 
sites, and containing by far the most in- 
5 



teresting and important monuments of 
antiquity, in their original position, to bf 
found in the whole world. 

J. L. T. Phillu'S. 




THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 

PART FIRST. 





ALGIERS FROM THE SEA. 



A FACT need not be a fixed fact to 
be a very positive one ; and Ka- 
bylia, a region to whose outline no geog- 
rapher could give precision, has long ex- 
isted as the most uncomfortable reality 
in colonial France. Irreconcilable Ka- 
bylia, hovering as a sort of thunderous 
cloudland among the peaks of the Atlas 
Mountains, is respected for a capacity it 
has of rolling out storms of desperate 
warriors. These troops disgust and con- 
found the French by making every hut 
and house a fortress : like the clansmen 



of Roderick Dhu, they lurk behind the 
bushes, animating each tree or shrub 
with a preposterous gun charged with a 
badly - moulded bullet. The Kabyle, 
when excited to battle, goes to his death 
as carelessly as to his breakfast : his 
saint or marabout has promised him an 
immediate heaven, without the critical 
formality of a judgment-day. He fights 
with more than feudal faithfulness and 
with undiverted tenacity. He is in his 
nature unconquerable. So that the 
French, though they have riddled this 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



67 



thunder-cloud of a Kabylia with their 
shot, seamed it through and through 
with mihtary roads, and estabhshed a 



beautiful fort natiottal right in the mid- 
dle of it, on the plateau of Souk-el- Arba, 
possess it to-day about as thoroughly a? 




" IMPREGNABLE KABYLIA 



we Americans might possess a desirable 
thunder-storm which should be observed 
hanging over Washington, and which 
we should annex by means of electrical 
communications transpiercing it in every 



direction, and a resident governor fixed 
at the centre in a balloon. France has 
gorged Kabylia, with the rest of Algeria, 
but she has never digested it. 

A trip through Algeria, such as we 



68 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



now propose, belongs, as a pleasure- 
excursion, only to the present age. In 
the last it was made involuntarily. Only 
sixty years ago the English spinster or 
spectacled lady's - companion, as she 
crossed over from the mouth of the Ta- 
gus to the mouth of the Tiber, or from 
Marseilles to Naples, looked out for cap- 



ture by "the Algerines" as quite a rea- 
sonable eventuality. (Who can forget 
Topfer's mad etchings for Bachelor But- 
terfly, of which this little episode forms 
the incident ?) Her respectable mind 
was filled with speculations as to how 
many servants "a dey's lady" was fur- 
nished with, and what was the amount 




BOUGIE, AND HILL OF GOURAYA. 



of her pin-money. A stout, sound-wind- 
ed Christian gentleman, without vices 
and kind in fetters, sold much cheaper 
than a lady, being worth thirty pounds, 
or only about one-tenth the value of 
UncJe Tom. 

The opening up of Algeria to the mod- 
ern tourist and Murray's guide-books is 
in fact due to the American nation. So 
late as 1815 the Americans, along with 
the other trading nations, were actually 
paying to the dey his preposterous trib- 
ute for exemption from piratical seizure. 
In this year, however, we changed our 
mind and sent Decatur over. On the 
2Sth of June he made his appearance at 
Algiers, having picked up and disposed 
of some Algerine craft, the frigate Ma- 
shouda and the brig Estido. The Al- 
gerines gave up all discussion with a 
messenger so positive in his manners, 
and in two days Decatur introduced our 
consul-general Shaler, who attended to 
the release of American captives and the 
positive stoppage of tribute. 

The example was followed by other 
nations. Lord Exmouth bombarded Al- 
giers in 1 816, and reduced most of it to 



ashes. In 1827 the dey opened war 
with France by hitting the French con- 
sul with his fan. Charles X. retorted 
upon the fan with thirty thousand troops 
and a fleet. The fort of Algiers was ex- 
ploded by the last survivor of its gar- 
rison, a negro of the deserts, who rush- 
ed down with a torch into the powder- 
cellar. Algeria collapsed. The dey 
went to Naples, the janizaries went to 
Turkey, and Algeria became French. 

From this time the country became 
more or less open, according as France 
could keep it quiet, to the inroads of that 
modern beast of ravin, the tourist. The 
Kabyle calls the tourist Roumi (Chris- 
tian), a form, evidently, of our word 
Roman, and referable to the times when 
the bishop of Hippo and such as he 
identified the Christian with the Roman- 
ist in the Moorish mind. 

Modern Algiers, viewed from the sea, 
wears upon its luminous walls small 
trace of its long history of blood. As 
we contemplate its mosques and houses 
flashing their white profiles into the sky, 
it is impossible not to muse upon the 
contrast between its radiant and pictu- 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



69 



resque aspect and its veritable character 
as the accomphce of every crime and 
every baseness known to the Oriental 
mind. To see that sunny city basking 
between its green hills, you would hardly 
think of it as the abode of bandits ; yet 
two powerful tribes still exist, now living 
in huts which crown the heights of 
Boudjareah overlooking the sea, who 
formerly furnished the boldest of the 
pitiless corsairs. To the iron hooks of 
the Bab (or gate) of Azoun were hung 
by the loins our Christian brothers who 
would not accept the Koran ; at the 
Bab-el-Oued, the Arab rebels, not con- 
founded even in their deaths with the 
dogs of Christians, were beheaded by 
the yataghan ; and in the blue depths 
we sail over, whose foam washes the 
bases of the temples, hapless women 
have sunk for ever, tied in a leather bag 
between a cat and a serpent. 

The history, in truth, is the history — 
always a cruel one — of an overridden 
nation compelled to bear a part in the 
wickedness of its oppressors. This ru- 
bric of blood may be read in many a 
dismal page. Algeria was a slave be- 
fore England was Christian. The great- 
est African known to the Church, Au- 
gustine, has left a pathetic description 
of the conquest of his country by the 
Vandals in the fifth century : it was at- 
tended with horrible atrocities, the ene- 
my leaving the slain in unburied heaps, 
so as to drive out the garrisons by pes- 
tilence. When Spain overthrew the 
Moors she took the coast-cities of Mo- 
rocco and Algeria. Afterward, when 
Aruch Barbarossa, the "Friend of the 
Sea," had seized the Algerian strong- 
holds as a prize for the Turks, and his 
system of piracy was devastating the 
Mediterranean, Spain with other coun- 
tries suffered, and we have a vivid pic- 
ture of an Algerine bagnio and bagnio- 
keeper from the pen of the illustrious 
prisoner Cervantes. " Our spirits failed " 
(he writes) "in witnessing the unheard- 
of cruelties that Hassan exercised. Ev- 
ery day were new punishments, accom- 
panied with cries of cursing and ven- 
geance. Almost daily a captive was 
thrown upon the hooks, impaled or de- 



prived of sight, and that without any 
other motive than to gratify the thirst of 
human blood natural to this monster, 
and which inspired even the execution- 
ers with horror." 

While our fancy traces the figure of 
the author of Do7i Quixote, a plotting 
captive, behind the walls of Algiers, the 
steamer is withdrawing, and the view of 
the city becomes more beautiful at every 
turn of the paddles. We pass through 
a whole squadron of fishing-boats, hov- 
ering on their long lateen sails, and 
seeming like butterflies balanced upon 
the waves, which are blue as the petal 
of the iris. Algiers gradually becomes 
a mere impression of light. The details 
have been effaced little by little, and 
melted into a general hue of gold and 
warmth : the windowless houses and the 
walls extending in terraces confuse in- 
terchangeably their blank masses. The 
dark green hills of Boudjareah and Mus- 
tapha seem to have opened their sombre 
flanks to disclose a marble-quarry : the 
city, piled up with pale and blocklike 
forms, appears to sink into the moun- 
tains again as the boat retires, although 
the picturesque buildings of the Casbah, 
cropping out upon the summit, linger 
long in sight, hke rocks of lime. As we 
pass Cape Matifou we see rising over its 
shoulder the summits of the Atlas range, 
among whose peaks we hope to be in a 
fortnight, after passing Bona, Phihppe- 
ville and Constantina. 

Saihng along this coast of the Mediter- 
ranean resembles an excursion on one 
of the Swiss lakes. Four hours aftei 
passing Algiers, in going eastwardly to- 
ward the port of Phihppeville, we come 
in sight of Dellys, a little town of poor 
appearance, where the hussars of France 
first learned the peculiarities of Kabyle 
fighting. This warfare was something 
novel. In place of the old gusty sweeps 
of cavaliers on horseback, faUing on the 
French battalions or glancing around 
them in whirlwinds, the soldiers had 
to extirpate the Kabyles hidden in the 
houses. It was not fighting — it was fer- 
reting. Each house in Dellys was a fort 
which had to be taken by siege. Each 
garden concealed behind its pahngs the 



70 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



"flower" of Kabyle chivalry, only to be 
uprooted by the bayonet. The women 
fought with fury. 

We follow our course along these ex- 
quisite blue waters, and soon have a 
glimpse, at three miles distance, of an 



isolated, abrupt cone, trimmed at the 
summit into the proportions of a pyra- 
mid. It is the hill of Gouraya, an enor- 
mous mass of granite which lifts its 
scarped summit over the port of Bougie, 
called Salda by Strabo. We approach 




^- /i-DELAVlLLB 
ROMAN RELICS AT PHILIPPEVILLE. 



and watch the enormous rock seeming 
to grow taller and taller as we nestle be- 
neath it in the beautiful harbor. Bougie 
lies on a narrow and stony beach in the 
embrace of the mountain, white and co- 
quettish, spreading up the rocky wall as 
far as it can, and looking aloft to the 
protecting summit two thousand feet 
above it. We abstain from dismount- 
ing, but sweep the city with field-glasses 
from the deck of the ship, recollecting 
that Bougie was bombarded in the reign 
of the Merrie Monarch by Sir Edward 
Spragg. We trace the ravine of Sidi- 
Touati, which breaks the town in half 
as it splits its way into the sea. Here, 
in 1836, the French commandant, Salo- 
mon de Mussis, was treacherously shot 
while at a friendly conference with the 
sheikh Amzian, the pretext being the 



murder of a marabout by the French 
sentinels. The incident is worth men- 
tioning, because it brought into light 
some of the nobler traits of Kabyle cha- 
racter. The sheikh, for kiUing a guest 
with whom he had just taken coffee, was 
reproached by the natives as "the man 
who murdered with one hand and took 
gifts with the other," and was forced by 
mere popular contempt from his sheikh- 
ship, to perish in utter obscurity. 

Putting on steam again, we recede 
from Bougie, and passing Djigelly, with 
its overpoweringly large barracks and 
hospital, doubhng Cape Bougarone and 
sighting the fishing-village of "Stora, we 
arrive at the new port-city of PhUippe- 
ville. This colony, a plantation of Louis 
Philippe's upon the site of the Roman 
Russicada, has only thirty-four years of 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



71 



existence, and contains twenty French- 
men for every Arab found within it. It 
differs, however, from our American 
thirty-year-old towns in the interesting 
respect of showing the traces of an older 
civilization. French savants here ex- 



amine the ruins of the theatre and the 
immense Roman reservoirs in the hill- 
side, and take "squeezes " of inscriptions 
marked upon the antique altar, column 
or cippus. On an ancient pillar was 
found an amusing grafita, the sketch of 




LION-SHAPED ROCK, HARBOR OF BONA. 



some Roman schoolboy, showing an 
aqimrms (or water-carrier) loaded with 
his twin buckets. Philippeville, nursed 
among these glowing African hills, has 
the look of some bad melodramatic joke. 
Its European houses, streets laid out with 
the surveyor's chain, pompous church, 
and arcades like a Rue de Rivoli in min- 
iature, make a foolish show indeed, in 
place of the walls, white, unwinking and 
mysterious, which ordinarily enclose the 
Eastern home or protect the Arab's wife 
behind their blinded windows. 

If we leave Philippeville in the even- 
ing, we find ourselves next morning in 
the handsome roadstead of Bona. This, 
for the present, will terminate our ex- 
amination of the coast, for, however fond 
we may be of level traveling, we cannot 
reasonably expect to get over the Atlas 
Mountains by hugging the shore. The 
harbor of Bona, though broad and beau- 
tiful, is somewhat dangerous, concealing 
numbers of rocks which lurk at about 
the surface of the water. Other rocks, 
standing boldly out at the entrance of 
the port, offer a singular aspect, being 
sculptured into strange forms by the sea. 
One makes a very good statue of a lion, 
lying before the city as its guard, and 
looking across the waves for an enemy 
as the foam caresses its monstrous feet. 



Dismounting from shipboard, we be- 
come landsmen for the remainder of oui 
journey, and wave adieu to the steam- 
boat which has brought us as we linger 
a moment on the mole of Bona. This 
city is named from the ancient Hippo, 
out of whose ruins, a mile to the south- 
ward, it was largely built. The Arabs 
call it "the city of jujube trees" — 
Beled-el-Huneb. To the Roumi (or 
Christian) traveler the interest of the 
spot concentrates in -one historic figure, 
that of Saint Augustine. In the basilica 
of Hippo, of which the remains are be- 
lieved to have been identified in some 
recent excavations, the sainted bishop 
shook the air with his learned and pene- 
trating eloquence. Here he exhorted 
the faithful to defend their religious lib- 
erty and their hves, uncertain if the Van- 
dal hordes of Genseric were not about 
to sweep away the faith and the lan- 
guage of Rome. Here, where the forest 
of El Edoug spreads a shadow like that 
of memory over the scene of h'.s walks 
and labors, he brought his grand life of 
expiation to a holy close, praying with 
his last breath for his disciples oppressed 
by the invaders. We reach the site of 
Hippo (or Hippone) by a Roman bridge, 
restored to its former solidity by the 
French, over whose arches the bishop 



72 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



must have often walked, meditating on 
his youth of profligacy and vain scholar- 
ship, and over the abounding Divine 
grace which had saved him for the edi- 
fication of all futurity. 

Bona has a street named Saint Augus- 



tine, but it is, by one of the strange para- 
doxes which history is constantly play- 
ing us, owned entirely by Jews, and 
those of one sole family. This fact in- 
dicates how the thrifty race has pros- 
pered since the French occupancy 




SHOPKEEPER AT BONA. 



Formerly oppressed and ill treated, tax- 
ed and murdered by the Turks, and only 
permitted to dress in the mournfulest 
colors, the Jew of Algeria hid himself as 
if life were something he had stolen, and 
for which he must apologize all his days. 
Now, treated with the same liberality as 
any other colonist, the Jew indulges in 
every ostentation of dress except as to 
the color of the turban, which, in small 
towns like Bona, still preserves the black 
hue of former days of oppression. On 
Saturdays the children of Jacob fairly 
blaze with gold and gay colors. On 
their working days they line the princi- 
pal streets, eyeing the passers-by with a 
cool, easy indifference, but never losing 
a chance of business. In Algeria this 
race is generally thought to present a 
picture of arrogance, knavery and rank 
cowardice not equaled on the face of 
the globe. An English traveler saw 



an Arab, after maddening himself with 
opium, and absinthe, run a-mok among 
the shopkeepers who lined the principal 
street of Algiers. Selecting the Hebrews, 
he drove before him a throng of twenty, 
dressed in all the colors of the rainbow, 
who allowed themselves to be knocked 
down with the obedience of ninepins. 
A Frenchman stopped the maniac after 
he had killed one Jew and wounded sev- 
eral, none of them making any effort at 
defence. 

A few narrow streets, bordered with 
Moorish architecture, contain the native 
industry of Bona. It is about equally 
divided between the Jews and the M'za- 
bites, who, like the Kabyles, are a rem- 
nant of the stiff-necked old Berber tribe. 
The M'zabites preserve the pure Arab 
dress — the haik, or small bornouse with- 
out hood, the broad breeches coming to 
the knee, the bare legs, and the turban 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



73 



rolled up into a coil of ropes. Thus ac- 
coutred, and squatting in the ledges of 
their small booths, the jewelers, black- 
smiths and tailors of Bona are found at 
their work. 

Returning to Philippeville by land. 



and remaining as short a time as possible 
in this unedifying city, which is a bad 
and overheated imitation of a French 
provincial town, we concede only so 
much to its modern character as to hire 
a fine open carriage in which to proceed 




CONSTANTINA. 



inland toward Constantina. This city 
is reached after a calm, meditative ride 
through sunny hills and groves. After 
so quiet a preparation the first view of 
Constantina is fairly astounding. En- 
circled by a grand curve of mountainous 
precipices, rises a gigantic rock, washed 
by a moat formed of the roaring cas- 
cades of the river Rummel. On the 
flat top of this naked rock, like the Sty- 
lites on his pillar, stands Constantina. 
The Arabs used to say that Constantina 
was a stone in the midst of a flood, and 
that, according to their Prophet, it would 
require as many Franks to raise that 
stone as it would of ants to lift an egg 
at the bottom of a milk-pot. 

This city, under its old Roman name 
of Cirta, was one of the principal strong- 
holds of Numidia. In 1837 it was one 
of the most hotly-defended strongholds 
of the Kabyles. The French have re- 



named, as "Gate of the Breach," the 
old Bab-el-Djedi'd, wkere Colonel La- 
moriciere entered at the head of his 
Zouaves. The city had to be conquered 
in detail, house by house. Lamoriciere 
himself was wounded ; the Kabyles, 
driven to their last extremity, evacuated 
the Casbah on the summit of the rock, 
and let down their women by ropes into 
the abyss ; the ropes, overweighted by 
these human clusters, broke, piling the 
bodies and fragments of bodies in heaps 
beneath the precipice, while some of the 
natives descended the steep rock safely 
with the agility of goats. 

Of all the large Algerian cities, Con- 
stantina is that which has best preserved 
its primitive signet. In most quarters it 
remains what it was under the Turks. 
These quarters are still undermined, 
rather than laid out, with close and 
crooked streets, where the rough white 



74 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



houses are pierced with narrow win- 
dows, closed to the inquisitive eye of 
the Roumi. The roofs are of tile, for 
the winters on the hills are too severe to 
permit the flat, terraced roofs of Algiers 
or Bona. These white houses, roofed 



with brown, give a perfectly original as- 
pect to the city as seen from any of the 
neighboring eminences. The plateau of 
Mansourah is connected with the town 
by a magnificent Roman biidge, two sto- 
ries in height, restored by the French. 




ROMAN BRIDGE At CONSTANTINA. 



From this bridge, which is three hun- 
dred feet high by three hundred and fif- 
teen feet in length, and has five arches, 
you look down into the bed of the Rum- 
mel, while the vultures and eagles scream 
around you, and you recite the words 
of the poet El Abdery, who called this 
river a bracelet which encircles an arm. 
The gorge opens out into a beautiful 
plain rich with pomegranates, figs and 
orange trees. The sea is forty - eight 
miles away. 



The last bey of Constantina, not know- 
ing that he was merely building for the 
occupancy of the French governors who 
were to come after him, decreed himself, 
some fifty years ago, a stately pleasure- 
dome, after the fashion of Kubla Khan. 
From the ruins of Constantina, Bona 
and Tunis, Ahmed Bey picked up what- 
ever was most beautiful in the way of 
Roman marbles and carving. With 
these he built his halls, while the Rum- 
mel, through caverns measureless to 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



75 



man, ran on below. Some Frenchman I the freedom of this curious piece of 
of importance will now-a-days give you I Turkish construction, where, among 




bey's palace, constantina. 



storks and ibises gravely perched on 
one stilt, you examine the relics of Ro- 
man history, preserved by its very de- 



stroyers, according to the grotesque 
providence that watches over the study 
of archaeology. 



76 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



You are told how Ahmed, wishing to 
adorn the walls of his gallery or loggia 
with frescoes, of which he had heard, 
but which he had no artist capable of 
executing, whether Arab, Moor or ]q\v, 
applied to a prisoner. The man was 



a French shoemaker, who had never 
touched a brush : he vainly tried to de- 
cline the honor, but the bey was inflex- 
ible : " You are a vile liar : all the Chris- 
tians can paint. Liberty if you succeed, 
death if you disobey me." 




SHAMPOOING THE ROUMI. 



Extremely nervous was the hand 
which the painter malgre ltd applied to 
the unlooked-for task. From the labori- 
ous travail of his brain issued at length 
an odd mass of arabesques with which 
the walls were somehow covered. His 
invention exhausted, he awaited in an 
agony of fear the inspection of his Turk- 
ish master. He came, and was enchant- 
ed. The painter was free, and the bey 
observed ; "The dog wanted to deceive 
me : I knew that all the Christians could 
paint." 

You are amazed to find, in this nest 
of Islamite savagery and among these 
wild rocks, the uttermost accent of mod- 
ern French politeness. Your presence 
is a windfall in quarters so retired, and 
you sit among orange plants and stray- 



ing gazelles, while the military band 
throws softly out against the inaccessible 
crags the famous tower-scene from the 
fourth act of // Trovatore. As night 
draws on, tired of your explorations, 
you seek a Moorish bath. 

Let no tourist, experienced only in the 
effeminate imitations of the hummum to 
be found in New York or London, expect 
similar considerate treatment in Algeria. 
He will be more likely to receive the at- 
tention of the M'zabite bather after the 
fashion narrated in the following para- 
graph, which is a quotation from an 
English journalist in the land of the 
Kabyles : 

"We were told to sit down upon a 
marble seat in the middle of the hall, 
which we had no sooner done than we 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



n 



became sensible of a great increase of 
heat : aftei this each of us was taken 
into a closet of milder temperature, 
where, after placing a white cloth on the 
floor and taking off our napkins, they 
laid us down, leaving us to the further 



operations of two naked, robust negroes. 
These men, newly brought from the in- 
terior of Africa, were ignorant of Arabic ; 
so I could not tell them in what way I 
wished to be treated, and they handled 
me as roughly as if I had been a Moor 




HAMMO-EL-ZOUAOUI. 



inured to hardship. Kneeling with one 
knee upon the ground, each took me by 
a leg and began rubbing the soles of 
my feet with a pumice stone. After this 
operation on my feet, they put their 
hands into a small bag and rubbed me 
all over with it as hard as they could. 
The distortions of my countenance must 
have told them what I endured, but they 
rubbed on, smiling at each other, and 
sometimes giving me an encouraging 
look, indicating by their gestures the 
good it would do me. While they were 
thus currying me they almost drowned me 
by throwing warm water upon me with 
large silver vessels, which were in the 
basin under a cock fastened in the wall. 
When this was over they raised me up, 
putting my head under the cock, by 
which means the water flowed all over 
my body ; and, as if this was not suf- 
ficient, my attendants continued plying 
their vessels. Then, having dried me 
with very fine napkins, they each of 



them very respectfully kissed my hand. 
I considered this as a sign that my tor- 
ment was over, and was going to dress 
myself, when one of the negroes, grimly 
smaling, stopped me till the other return- 
ed with a kind of earth, which they began 
to rub all over my body without consult- 
ing my inclination. I was as much sur- 
prised to see it take off all the hair as 
I was pained in the operation ; for this 
earth is so quick in its effect that it burns 
the skin if left upon the body. This 
being finished, I went through a second 
ablution, after which one of them seized 
me behind by the shoulders, and setting 
his two knees against the lower part of 
my back, made my bones crack, so that 
for a time I thought they were entirely 
dislocated. Nor was this all, for after 
whirling me about like a top to the right 
and left, he delivered me to his comrade, 
who used me in the same manner : and 
then, to my no small satisfaction, opened 
the closet door." 



78 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



This is the true Moorish bath. Mean- 
time, the M'zabite or negro, as he dislo- 
cates your legs, cracks your spinal col- 
umn of dances over you on his knees, 
drones forth a kind of native psalmody, 
which, melting into the steamy atmo- 
sphere of the place, seems to be the 



litany of happiness and of the pure 
in heart. Clean in body and soul as 
you never were before, skinned, depi- 
lated, dissected, you emerge for a new 
life of ideal perfection, feeling as if you 
were suddenly relieved of your body. 
There is held every Friday at Con- 




" BALEK 



stantina a grand assembly of the fire- 
eating marabouts, the fanatics who have 
given so much trouble to their French 
rulers. Every revolution among the 
Kabyles is a religious movement, set in 
motion by the wild enthusiasm of the 
"saints." The religious orders of Ka- 
bylia, all of them differing in various 
degrees from Turkish Mohammedanism, 
are of some half dozen varieties, adapted 
to minds of various cultivation. Some, 
as that of Sidi-Yusef-Hansali, are mild 
in their rites and of a purely didactic or 
religious nature. This latter sect origin- 
ated in Constantina, comprises two thou- 
sand brothers or khouans, and was in 
1865 under the authority of Hammo-el- 
Zouaoui, a direct descendant of Yusef- 
Hansali. An hour passed in the college 
of this order, where the whole formula 
of worship consists in saying a hundred 
times "God forgive!" then, a hundred 
other times, "Allah ill' Allah: Moham- 
med ressoul Allah!" may be monotonous, 
but it is not revolutionary. From this 



tautological brotherhood, through vari- 
ous degrees of emotional activity, you 
arrive at the wild doings of the fire- 
eaters, or followers of Mohammed-ben- 
Aissa. This Aissa was a native of Mek- 
nes in Morocco, where he died full of 
years and piety three hundred years ago. 
His legend states that being originally 
very poor, he attempted to support his 
family in the truly Oriental manner, not 
by working for them, but by spending 
his whole time at the mosque in prayer 
for their miraculous sustenance. His 
inertia and "his faith were acceptable to 
Mohammed, who appeared to Aissa's 
wife with baskets of food, and to Aissa 
with the order to found a sect. The al- 
legory expressed by the disgusting actions 
of the order would seem to be that any- 
thing is nourishment to the true believer. 
They therefore exhibit themselves as eat- 
ing red-hot iron, scorpions and prickly 
cactus. Various travelers, some of them 
cool hands and accurate observers, have 
seen these khouans at their horrible 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



79 



feasts without being able to explain the 
imposture. A British soldier, an experi- 
enced Indian officer, happened to be in 



Kabylia just before the breaking out of 
the great Sepoy rebellion in India, and 
was introduced to one of the fire-eating 




^^^^^P&=^^y-//-/ / V G- 



A STREET IN CONSTANT] NA. 



orgies by Major Deval at Tizi-ouzou, 
where our journey into Kabylia is to 
terminate. With his own eyes he saw a 



khouan, excited by half an hour's chant- 
ing and beating the tom-tom, drive a^ 
sword four inches deep into his chest by 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 




THE GREAT MOSQUE, CONSTANTINA. 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



8l 



hitting it with a tile. The man marched 
around and exhibited it to the congrega- 
tion as it quivered in his naked body. 
Another seared his face and hands with 
a large red-hot iron, holding it finally 
with his mouth without other support. 
Another chewed up an entire leaf of a 
cactus with its dangerous spikes, which 
sting one's hands severely and remain 
rankling in the flesh. Another filled his 
mouth with live coals from a brazier, 
and walked around blowing out sparks. 
Another swallowed a living scorpion, a 
small snake, broken glass and nails. 
The spectator was in the midst of these 
enthusiasts, being touched by them in 
their antics, yet he could detect no foul 
play, except that he imagined the sword 
in the first-named experiment to have 
been driven into -an old wound or be- 
tween the skin and the flesh. It was to 
counteract the influence of the fire-eating 
marabouts that the French government 
sent over Robert Houdin, the ingenious 
mechanician, but though he eclipsed 
their wonders by tricks of electricity and 
sleight, he has left but a lame explana- 
tion of the "juggleries" of the Algerine 
saints. 

The worst attribute of these khouans 
is, that after having excited the ignorant 
Kabyles to many a losing war by their 
magnetism, they remain themselves be- 
hind the curtain, safe and sarcastic. 

In the Moorish quarter of Constan- 
tina, where the streets are about five feet 
wide, you sit down to watch the per- 
petual come-and-go of the inhabitants. 
Taking a cup of fragrant coffee — which, 
as the reader knows, is in Eastern coun- 
tries eaten at the same time that it is 
drunk — you sit on a stone bench of the 
coffee-house and contem.plate mules, 
horses, asses, passengers, buyers, sellers, 
loungers, Arabs, Turks, Kabyles, Jews, 
« 6 



Moors and spahis. On every side you 
hear the cry of "Balek! balek !" This 
means "Look out!" and the word is 
closely followed by the causative fact. 
The street is unpaved, the horse is un- 
shod, the hoofs cannot be heard, and 
you have hardly time to efface yourself 
against a wall when a cavalier passes by 
like a careless torrent, scattering the 
white bornouses centrifugally from his 
pathway as he advances. The streets, 
as we observed, are very narrow. Each 
has its own manufacture. Here are the 
tailors ; here, in this deafening alley, 
are the blacksmiths ; farther on are the 
shoemakers, and you are driven mad 
with wonder at the quantities of slippers 
made for a people which goes eternally 
barefoot. Springing out of this daedal 
intricacy of booths and workshops rise 
the slender minarets of prayer, of which 
the principal one belongs to a mosque 
said to be the most beautiful in Algeria. 
The interior of this chief mosque is not 
deprived of ornament, having its col- 
umns of pink marble, its elliptical Moor- 
ish arches, and its tiles of painted fay- 
ence set in the walls. In the centre is 
the pulpit, coarsely painted red and 
blue, where the imaum recites his pray- 
ers. Three small, lofty windows are fill- 
ed with carved lacework. The floor is 
spread with carpets for tlje knees of the 
rich, with matting for the poor. Over 
all rises the square, crescent - crowned 
minaret — no belfry, but a steeple where 
the chimes are rung by the human voice. 
Night and day, from the heights of their 
slender towers, the muezzins toll out 
their vibrating notes like a bell, inviting 
the faithful to prayers with the often- 
heard signal: "Allah ill' Allah :■ Mo- 
hammed resoul Allah !" 

(end of part first.) 



82 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA 

PART SECOND. 







I kOM (.()\S1AMINA lU SET IF. 



THE Roumi who leaves Constantina 
for Setif has a choice of two routes 
— one picturesque, lively and covered 
with Roman remains ; the other perfect- 
ly arid, and distinguished by the fact 
that in five miles there are just four 
trees. 

He turns, however, as he settles him- 
self in his stirrup amongst the interested 
Arab population of Constantina, to cast 
a last look at the ugly French streets 
in which, as a tourist, his lot was cast. 
The Arab quarters, where life still flows 
on in the old African style, have seized 
his attention exclusively, and he remem- 
bers with a kind of contemptuous re- 
morse that he has paid no regard to the 
smart modern edifices and offices that 
belong to French occupation. Yet one 
of these, at least, the staring Napoleonic 
Palais de Justice, would yield him a ro- 
mance from time to time. 

Here, in December, 1872, twenty-one 
natives of the Belezma were tried at a 
court of assizes for the massacre, last 
April, of twelve French colonists. The 
affair was a sequel of the French-Prus- 
sian war. The natives, for a long time 
past on good terms with strangers, be- 



came insolent, boasting that France was 
ruined, and that all the French would 
soon disappear from Algeria. Some of 
the tribes, however, remained, if not 
friendly, at least less hostile. The re- 
volt had become almost general, and on 
the 2 1st of April the sheikh Brahim of 
the Halymias informed the little colony 
near Batna that they were no longer 
safe in the forest, and offered to escort 
them into Batna. These colonists were 
the workmen at the saw- mills of a M. 
Prudhomme, about ten miles out of the 
town. The Europeans, consisting of 
thirteen men, one woman named Dorliat 
and her four children, set out the next 
morning, accompanied by Brahim and 
about forty of his men. On arriving in 
a ravine they were suddenly attacked by 
a large body of the rebels. Six of the 
party, who were in the rear, succeeded 
in escaping, but twelve of the men were 
massacred. Madame Dorliat, it is said, 
owed her life to a native named Abdal- 
lah at the saw-mills, who, on seeing her 
in tears before starting, said to her : 
"Woman, you have nothing to fear : no 
harm will be done to you or to your chil- 
dren. As for the men, I will not answer 



THE KOUMI IN KABYLIA. 



83 



for them." As she continued to weep, 
he added : "Listen ! When you see the 
guns pointed at your breast, say this 
prayer : ' Allah ! Allah ! Mohammed 
racoul Allah !' and you will be saved." 
He also taught the same prayer to her 
children. In the midst of the slaughter 




MOUNTAIN ARABS. 

several Arabs had leveled their firearms 
at her to shoot her, when she remem- 
bered Abdallah's lesson, and throwing 
herself on her knees to them repeated 
the invocation. The murderers stopped, 
made her say it over again, and asked, 
"Do you mean it?" On her replying 
in the affirmative they spared her, but 
stripped her entirely naked, and took 
from her three of her children : she only 
recovered them thirty -two days later, 
and one of them died from a sabre-cut 
in the head, received during the fight. 
The woman's husband was among the 
killed, and so was the proprietor of the 
mill, M. Prudhomme. Of the twenty ac- 
cused brought to trial at Constantina, 
twelve were condemned to death and 
three to hard labor ; the others, among 



whom was the sheikh Brahim, being 
acquitted. 

Severe justice is the only condition on 
which French supremacy can be main- 
tained in the country, and probably for 
the general Arab populace the rule of 
the Gauls is a judicious one. But it is 
to be questioned whether 
the rule of fa/wn is the 
right one for the Kabyles. 
In 1871, at the height of 
the French troubles with 
the Commune, formidable 
revolts were going on 
among the descendants 
of those untamable 
wretches whom Saint 
Arnaud smoked out in 
a cave. In July the gar- 
rison at Setif heard the 
plaint of a friendly cadi, 
named D'joudi, who had 
been wantonly attacked 
for his 1 o y a 1 1 y to the 
French by some organ- 
ized mutineers under 
Mohammed Ben-Hadad. 
The poor wretch had 
been obliged to flee, with 
his women and his flocks, 
into the protection of his 
country's oppressors. 
Since the chassepot has 
succeeded' in reducing 
the Kabyles once more 
to a superficial obedience, the courts 
have been busy with the sentences of 
their insubordinate leaders. France im- 
itates England's sanguinary policy in 
her treatment of rebellious and semi- 
civilized tribes. Eight of the leaders of 
the Kabyle revolt of 1871 have been 
condemned to death, and a number of 
others have been sentenced to various 
terms of imprisonment. The Kabyles 
will take their revenge when another 
European war places the Algiers colo- 
nists at their mercy. 

The guides who accompany the trav- 
eler serve, in the absence of the trees, to 
attract his scrutiny. These mountain 
Arabs are superb fellows. Lips almost 
black, and shaded with lustrous beards, 
set off their perfect teeth, white, small. 



84 



THE KOUMI IN KABYLIA. 



and separated like those of a young dog. 
Their black eyes are soft or stern at will. 
They are usually of middle size, large- 



chested, as befits Arabs from the hills, 
with small heads and finely - tapered 
wrists and ankles. They are dressed in 




AN ARAB UOUAR. 



red, with a covering of two bornouses — i tached to their boots of red morocco, 
a white one beneath, and a black one which come up to the knee ; for the 
fastened over. Long iron spurs are at- | Algerian Arab, a bare-legged animal 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



85 



when walking, is a booted cavalier when 
mounted. The white haik, or toga, is 
fastened around the temples. The horse 
of the principal guide is a fine iron-gray, 
with an enormous tail of black — high- 
stepping, and carrying his elaborately- 
draped burden as proudly as a banner. 



In contrast to this imposing guard of 
honor, the traveler minces along on a 
dumb, timid mule, who smells the ground 
in a sordid and vulgar manner, and is 
guided by a pitiful rope bridle. Such 
are the hackneys and the guides, en- 
gaged on the recommendation of the 




THE WASHERWOMEN. 



commandant of Constantina, who un- 
dertake to carry us to Setif and on to 
Bou-Kteun in Kabylia. 

Setif, the ancient metropolis of this 
part of Mauritania, and celebrated for a 
brave defence against the invading Sara- 
cens, is now the healthiest spot occupied 
by the French in all Algeria. It lies on 
a great table a mile above the sea, is 
fortified, and has four good streets, but 
pays for its salubrity by the extreme out- 
spokenness of the climate. It is subject 
to snow for six months, and is enveloped 
in a cloud of dust the other six. It is 
in the midst of a great grain-producing 
country, and is famed for its market, 
held every Sabbath. The surrounding 
folk dress for market, instead of dress- 
ing for Sunday, and exhibit the whitest 
of bornouses above the dustiest of legs 



as they sit crooning over trays of eggs 
or onions, brought far on foot through 
the powdery roads. 

As we leave Setif we are overtaken 
by the lumbering stage-coach, which 
plunges and jolts over the road to Sibou- 
Areridj — a coach apparently about the 
age of the carriage of General Wash- 
ington, for Algeria is the infirmary of all 
the worn-out French diligences. Sibou- 
Areridj is reached and passed, and a 
few miles farther on is encountered an 
Arab douar, or assemblage of tents form- 
ing a tribal fraction. This woven village, 
although we have attained the limits of 
Kabylia, reminds us that we have not 
yet reached the Kabylian abodes : an 
Arab lives in a tent in all localities out- 
side the great cities — a Kabyle, never. 
However poor the hut in which the 



86 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



Ivabylian artisan starves and labors, it 
must be a solid mansion founded upon 
llie soil, and its master must feel himself 
a householder. Our douar proves to be 
an encampment belonging to the mara- 
bouts, or high religious orders, situated 
on a large plot of ground in the owner- 



ship of the saints, and extending up to 
the limits of Kabylia. Composed of a 
circle of tents numbering about fifty, 
and exhibiting numbers of fine horses 
picketed near the tent-doors, it is as fine 
a specimen as we shall see of the patri- 
archal life inherited from the unfatherlv 




THE STONE TURBAN. 



father of Ishmael. The pavilions are 
of a thick camel's hair stuff, very labori- 
ously made by the women, which swells 
up in the rain and completely excludes 
moisture. They are striped brown and 
yellow, but a splendid tabernacle in the 
centre, of richer colors and finer fabric, 
bears at the apex a golden ball with 
plumes of ostrich feathers, the sign of 
authority. This tent is oval in form, 
resembling an overturned ship. It is 
the residence and office of the sheikh, 
or chief of the douar : several douars 
united form a tribe, governed by a caid. 
We venture to visit the sheikh, assured 
by our spahi guides that we shall be 
welcome. We are received blandly by 
the officer, offensively by his dogs, a 
throng of veritable jackals who scream 
around our feet as we enter. The in- 
terior, rich and severe at once, exhib- 
its saddles and arms, gilded boxes and 
silken curtains, without a single article 



of furniture. The sheikh treats us to 
mild tobacco in chiboukhs — another sign 
that we are not yet in Kabylia : never 
is a Kabyle seen smoking. We recip- 
rocate by offering coffee, made on the 
spot over our spirit-lamp — a process 
which the venerable sheikh watches as 
a piece of jugglery, and then dismisses 
us on our way with the polite but final 
air which Sarah may be supposed to 
have used in dismissing Hagar. 

The douar, like a city, has suburbs 
of greater squalor than its interior, and 
among them, under the palm trees, we 
see women washing clothes or engaged 
in the manufacture of couscoussou, a 
dish common to the Arab, the Kabyle 
and the traveler hereabouts, and so im- 
portant that a description of its prepara- 
tion may be acceptable. 

In the opening of a small tent, then, 
we paused to watch an old moukere (or 
daughter of Araby), whose hands look 



THE ROUAII IN KABYLIA. 



87 



as if she had been stirring up the com- 
post-heap of bones, pickings and dirt 
before the door. With these hands she 
loUs dexterously a quantity of moisten- 
ed flour upon a plate. Long habit has 
made it easy to her, and in an incredibly 
short time she has formed a multitude 



of small grains — her hands, it must be 
said, looking a great deal cleaner after 
the process. On the fire is a pot of 
water, just placed. She interrupts her 
labor to throw in a piece of kid, which, 
with a quantity of spices, she stirs around 
with her callous hand, almost to the 




bOU KTEUN 



c; 



boiling-pitch of the water. She then 
addicts herself once more to the manu- 
facture of the flour-grains, of which she 
has directly made a perfect mountain. 
The water now boiling, she places the 
granulated paste in a second earthen pot 
or vase, whose bottom, pierced like a 
colander with holes, fits like a cover 
upon that in which the meat is boiling. 
The steam cooks the grains, which are 
afterward served upon a platter, with the 
meat on top and the soup poured over. 
All travelers agree that, when you do 
not witness the preparation, couscoussou 
is a toothsome and attractive dish, fit to 
be set beside the maccaroni of Rossini. 
On the plateau outside the douar we 
find the cemetery, with its tombs ; for 
the Arab, content to sleep under tissue 
while he lives, must needs sleep under 
mason-work after he is dead. Under 
the koubba, or dome, is seen a sarcoph- 
agus covered with a crimson pall, the 
tomb of a dead marabout : banners of 
yellow or green silk, the testimony of so 
many pilgrimages to Mecca, hang over 



the dead. In the graveyard round about 
are tombstones roughly sculptured, and 
the stone turbans indicating the cranium 
of a Mussulman ; the Arab, again, after 
building his house of camel's hair, order- 
ing his last turban to be woven by the 
stone-mason ! 

We pass along a sterile country, with 
chalky rocks cropping from the ground 
and making our way increasingly dif- 
ficult. All is dry as a lime-basket. The 
climate here, completely wanting in the 
sense of a just medium, knows no re- 
source between the utter desiccation of 
all the water-courses in summer and an 
outpouring in winter which carries away 
trees, crops and arable earth, presenting 
the farmer with a result of boulders and 
sand. The rocks sound beneath our 
animals' feet for an hour or two : we dip 
into a ravine and attain Bou-Kteun, our 
first Kabylian town. 

It is night, and we invoke the hos- 
pitality of the village chief, called by 
the Kabyles the amin. Our prayers are 
not refused. The amin receives the 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



strangers, not so much from a feeling 
of social etiquette, of which he knows 
little, as from his religion, which com- 
mands him to receive the guest as the 
messenger of God. He comes to the 
threshold, kisses our hands without ser- 
vility, waits on us at a supper which he 
is too polite to share, and presents us 
with a prayer at our bedside. Bou- 
Kteun, situated halfway up the " Red 
Plateau," guards the pass called the 
Gates of Iron. It is an uninteresting 
village, the official house being alone 
respectable amidst a town of huts. As 
the amin accompanies us a little way 
outside the burgh, we remark, among 
the young orchards, stumps of olive and 
fig trees sawn away at the base. The 
amin shows them with sad satire, saying 
in explanation, " French Roumi :" it was 
the Christian French. 

That is the term, meaning no compli- 
ment, which the Kabyle fits to all Eu- 
ropeans alike. In vain the Frenchman, 
writhing with intellectual repugnance, 
explains that he is not a Christian — that 
he is a Voltairean, a creature of reason, 
an zlhanme. The Kabyle continues to 
call him a Roumi, which will bear to be 
translated Romanist, being imitated from 
the word Rome and applied to all Catho- 
lics. These same tribes doubtless called 
Saint Augustine a Roumi, and he return- 
ed the epithet Barbari or Berbers — a 
name which the emperors applied with 
vast contempt to the hordes and mon- 
grel population of exiles and convicts 
that peopled Mauritania, and which 
the natives retained until the Arab in- 
vasion, when they changed Berber for 
Kebaile. 

The Romans conquered the shores 
and the plains. You find none of their 
ruins among the mountains, where the 
Berbers, from the Roman occupation to 
the French, have preserved an inde- 
pendence never completely subdued. 

The Kabyle villages are united into 
federations. If these federations engage 
in quarrels — which is by no means rare 
— or if a village is menaced by an 
enemy, signals are placed in the mina- 
rets to appeal to the towns of the same 
party. These are easily seen, for all 



the villages are on hilly crests and visible 
from a distance. From the summit of 
Taourit el Embrank we can count more 
than twenty of these Kabyle towns, 
perched on the peaks around us, and 
separated by profound chasms. 

Every trait points out the distinction 
between the Kabyles and the surround- 
- ing Arabs. The Arabs seek laziness as 
a sovereign good ; the Kabyles are great 
artificers. The Arabs imprison theit 
wives ; the Kabyle women are almost 
as free as our own. The Kabylian ad- 
herence to the Mohammedan faith is bul 
partial, and is variegated by a quantity 
of superstitions and articles of belief 
indicating quite another origin. While 
the Koran proclaims the law of retalia- 
tion, eye for eye and tooth for tooth, the 
more humane Kabyle law simply exiles 
the criminal for ever, confiscating his 
goods to the community. It is true, the 
family of a murdered person are expect- 
ed to pursue the homicide with all the 
tenacity of a Corsican vendetta, but the 
tribal laws are kept singularly clean from 
the ferocity of individual habits. A 
strange thing, indicating probably a de- 
rivation from times at least as early as 
Augustine, is that the Kabyle code (a 
mixture, like all primitive codes, of law 
and religion) is called by the Greek term 
canon [kanonn). An institution of great 
protective use, in practice, is the safe- 
conduct, or anaya, a token given to a 
guest, traveler or prescript, and which 
protects the bearer as far as the ac- 
quaintance of the giver extends : it may 
be a gun, a stick, a bornouse or a letter. 
The anaya is the sultan of the Kabyles, 
doing charity and raising no taxes — 
"the finest sultan in the world," says 
the native proverb. The Kabyles press 
into all the towns and seaports for em- 
ployment with the same independence 
as if they were a neighboring nationality. 
They build houses, they work in car- 
pentry, they forge weapons, gun-barrels 
and locks, swords, knives, pickaxes, 
cards for wool, ploughshares, gun-stocks, 
shovels, wooden shoes, and frames for 
weaving. They weave neatly, and their 
earthenware is renowned. In addition, 
they are expert and shameless counter- 



THE KOUMI IN KABYLIA. 



89 



feiters. Yes, the fact must be admitted : 
these rugged mountaineers, so proud, 
and, according to their own code, so 
honorable, never blush to prepare imita- 
tions of the circulating medium, which 
they only know as an appurtenance and 
inxention of their civilized conquerors. 



In his rude hovel, with all the sublimities 
of Nature around him, this child of the 
wilderness looks up to the summits of 
the Atlas, "with peaky tops engrailed," 
and immediately thereafter looks down 
again to attend to the engrailing of his 
neat five-franc pieces, which can hardly 




TOBRIZ. AN ENEMY OF THE GuILLGTINE. 



be told from the genuine. This multi- 
plication of finance was punished under 
the beys with death. The bey of Con- 
stantina arrested in one day the men of 
three tribes notorious for counterfeiting, 
and decapitated a hundred of them. 
There was lately to be seen at Constan- 
tina the executioner who was charged 
with this punishment, the very individual 
who cut off the ingenious heads of all 
these poor money-makers, and did not 



"cut them off with a shilling." He ap- 
peared to modern visitors as a modest 
coffee-house keeper in the Arab quarters, 
who would serve you, for two cents, a 
cup of coffee with the hand that had 
wielded the yataghan. He was an old 
Turk, with wide gray moustaches, dress- 
ed in a i-emarkable and theatrical fash- 
ion. He wore a yellow turban of colossal 
size, and an ample orange girdle over a 
dress of light green. Poor Tobriz — that 



G 



4 



9° 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



was his name — was violently opposed to I geria. In the days of his prosperity an 
i!ie introduction of the guillotine in Al- I enormous sabre was passed through his 




THE IRON GATES. 



flaming girdle. In the early years of 
the French conquest Tobriz was employ- 
ed in the decapitations, which were exe- 



cuted with a saw, and must have been a 
horrible spectacle. He remembered well 
the execution of the hundred counter- 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



feiters in one night, and their heads ex- 
posed in the market. 

A rapid descent from Bou-Kteun to 
the bed of a river of the same name, 
and a pursuit of the latter to its conflu- 
ence with the river Biban, lead through 
impressive ravines to the Iron Gates. 
The waters of the Biban, impregnated 
with magnesia, leave their white traces 
on the bottoms of the precipices which 
enclose them. The mules pick their 
way over paths of terrible inclination. 
At length, at a turn in the overhanging 
reddish cliffs, where a hundred men 



could hold in check an entire army, we 
find ourselves in front of the first gate. 
It is a round arch four yards in width, 
pierced by Nature between the rocks. 
The second is at twenty paces off, and 
two others are found at a short distance. 
Between the first and second we ob- 
serve, chiseled in the stone above the 
reach of the water, ''L Arinee Fi'aiK^aisc, 
1839," engraved by the sappers attach- 
ed to the army of the duke of Orleans 
on the passage of the expedition. 

(END OF PART SECOND.) 




THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 

PART THIRD. 




THE AMIN OF KAALA. 



EMERGING from these gloomy 
cafions, and passing the Beni-Man- 
sour, the village of Thasaerth (where 
razors and guns are made), Arzou (full 
of blacksmiths), and some other towns, 
92 



we enter the Beni-Aidel, where numerous 
white villages, wreathed with ash trees, lie 
crouched like nests of eggs on the sum- 
mits of the primary mountains, with the 
magnificent peaks of Atlas cut in sap- 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



93 



phire upon the sky above them. At the 
back part of an amphitheatre of rocky 
summits, Hamet, the guide, points out a 



little city perched on a precipice, which 
is certainly the most remarkable site, 
outside of opera-scenery, that we have 




ever seen 
thousand 
quarters. 



It is Kalaa, a town of three | fined situation, to be perpetually dispu- 
inhabitants, divided into four ting with each other, although a battle 
which contrive, in that con- I would disperse the whole of the tax- 



94 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



payers over the edges. Although ap- I Kalaa may be approached in passing b> 
parently inaccessible but by balloon, | Bogni. It is hard to give an idea of the 




COURTYARD IN KAI.AA. 



difficulties in climbing up from Bogni 
to the city, where the hardiest traveler 
feels vertigo in picking his way over a 



path often but a yard wide, with perpen- 
diculars on either hand. Finally, after 
many strange feelings in your head and 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



95 



along your spinal marrow, you thank 
Heaven that you are safe in Kalaa. 



the women promenade without veils and 
covered with jewels, and the city is clean, 



The inhabitants of Kalaa pass for rich, i which is rare in Kabylia. There are four 




OUR IDA, THE LITTLE ROSE. 



amins (or sheikhs) in Kalaa, to one of 
whom we bear a letter of introduction. 
The miaya never fails, and we are re- 



ceived with cordiality, mixed with state- 
liness, by an imposing old man in a 
white bornouse. '" Enta amin ?" asks the 



96 



THE KOUMI IN KABYLIA. 



Roumi. He answers by a sign of the 
head, and reads our missive with care. 
Immediately we are made at home, but 
conversation languishes. He knows 
nothing but the pure Kabyle tongue, 
and cannot speak the mixed language 
of the coasts, called Sabir, which is the 
pigeon-Fiench of Algiers 
and Philippeville. 

"Enta sabir el arbi?" — 
" Knowest thou Arabic ?" 
asks our host. 

"Makach" — "No," we 
reply. "Enta sabir el 
Ingles f" — " Canst thou 
speak English ?" 

''Makach" — "Nay," an- 
swers the beautiful o 1 d 
sage, after which conversa- 
tion naturally languishes. 

But the next morning, 
after the richest and most 
assiduous entertainment, 
we see the little daughter 
of the amin playing in the 
court, attended by a ne- 
gress. The child-language 
is much the same in all 
nations, and in five min- 
utes, in this land of the 
Barbarians, on this terri- 
ble rock, we are pleasing 
the infant with wiles learnt 
to please little English-speaking rogues 
across the Atlantic. 

The amin's daughter, a child of six 
years, forms with her slave a perfect 
contrast. She is rosy and white, her 
mouth is laughing, her peeping eyes are 
laughing too. What strikes us partic- 
ularly is the European air that she has, 
with her square chin, broad forehead, 
robust neck and sturdy body. A glance 
at her father by daylight reveals the 
same familiar type. Take away his 
Arab vestments, and he would almost 
pass for a brother of Heinrich Heine. 
His child might play among the towers 
of the Rhine or on the banks of the 
Moselle, and not seem to be outside her 
native country. We have here, in a 
strong presentment, the types which 
seem to connect some particular tribes 
of the Kabyles with the Vandal in- 



vaders, who, becoming too much ener- 
vated in a tropical climate to preserve 
their warlike fame or to care for retiring, 
amalgamated with the natives. The in- 
habitants on the slopes of the Djordjora, 
reasonably supposed to have descended 
from the warriors of Genseric, build 




KABYLE SHOWING GERMANIC ORIGIN. 



houses which amaze the traveler by their 
utter unlikeness to Moorish edifices and 
their resemblance to European struc- 
tures. They make bornouses which sell 
all over Algeria, Morocco, Tunis and 
Tripoli, and have factories like those of 
the Pisans in the Middle Ages. 

Contrast the square and stolid Kabyle 
head shown in the engraving on this 
page with the type of the Algerian Arab 
on page 494. The more we study them, 
or even rigidly compare our Arab with 
the amin of Kalaa, the more distinction 
we shall see between the Bedouin and 
either of his Kabyle compatriots. The 
amin, although rigged out as a perfect 
Arab, reveals the square jaw, the firm 
and large-cut mouth, the breadth about 
the temples, of the Germanic tribes ; it 
is a head of much distinction, but it 
shows a large remant of the purely ani- 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



97 



mal force which entered into the strength 
of the Vandals and distinguished the 
Germans of Ceesar's day. As for the 
Kabyle of more vulgar position, take 
away his haik and his bornouse, trim 
the points of his beard, and we have a 
perfect German head. Beside these we 




TYI'E OF ALGERIAN ARAIi. 

set a representative Arab head, sketched 
in the streets of Algiers. See the feline 
characteristics, the pointed, drooping 
moustache and chin-tuft, the ext^^ne 
retrocession of the nostrils, the thin, 
weak and cruel mouth, the retreating 
forehead, the filmed eye, the ennui, the 
terrestrial detachment, of the Arab. He 
is a dandy, a creature of alternate flash 
and dejection, a wearer of ornaments, a 
man proud of his striped hood and orna- 
mental agraffes. The Kabyle, of stur- 
dier stuff, hands his ragged garment to 
his son like a tattered flag, bidding him 
cherish and be proud of the rents made 
by Roumi bayonets. 

It must be admitted that the Kabyles, 
with a thousand faults, are far from the 
fatalism, the abuse of force and that 
7 



merging of individualism which are 
found with the Islamite wherever he ap- 
pears. Whence, then, have come these 
more humane tendencies, charitable cus- 
toms and movements of compassion ? 
There are respectable authorities who 
consider them, with emotion, as feeble 
gleams of the great Chris- 
tian light which formerly, 
at its purest period, illumi- 
nated Northern Africa. 

It is the opinion of some 
who have long been con- 
versant with the Kabyles 
that the deeper you dive 
into their social mysteries 
the more traces you find 
of their having once been 
a Christian people. They 
observe, for instance, a set 
of statutes derived from 
their ancestors, and which, 
on points like suppression 
of thefts and murders, do 
not agree with the Koran. 
We have spoken of their 
name for the law — kanoun : 
evidently the resemblance 
of this to xayuiv must be 
more than accidental. 
Another sign is the mark 
of the cross, tattooed on 
the women of many of the 
tribes. -These fleshly in- 
scriptions are an incarnate 
evidence of the Christian past of some 
of the Kabyles, particularly such as are 
probably of Vandal origin. They are 
found especially among the tribes of the 
Gouraya, are probably a result of the 
Vandal invasion, and consist in the 
mark or sign of the cross, half an inch 
in dimension, on their forehead, cheeks 
and the palms of their hands. It ap- 
pears that all the natives who were 
found to be Christians were freed from 
certain taxes by their Aryan conquerors ; 
and it was arranged that they should 
profess their faith by making the cross 
on their persons, which practice was thus 
universalized. The tattooing is of a 
beautiful blue color, and is more orna- 
mental than the patches worn by our 
grandmothers. 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



Our final inference, then, is, that the 
Kabyles preserve strong traces of cer- 
tain primitive customs, which in certain 
cases are attributable to a Christian 
origin. 

A true city of romance, a Venice iso- 
lated by waves of mountains, and built 
upon piles whose beams are of living 
crystal, Kalaa, all but inaccessible, at- 



tracts the tourist as the roc's ^gg attract- 
ed Aladdin's wife. For ages it has been 
a city of refuge, a sanctuary for person 
and property in a land of anarchy. No- 
where else are the proud Kabyles so 
skillful and industrious — nowhere else 
are their women so much like Western 
women in beauty and freedom. 

The Kabyle woman preserves the lib- 




KABVLE WOMEN. 



erty which the female of the Orient 
possessed in the old times, before the 
jealousy of Mohammed made her a bird 
in a cage, or, as the Arab poet says, "an 
attar which must not be given to the 
winds." In Kabylia the women talk 
and gossip with the men : their villages 
present pretty spectacles at sunset, when 
groups of workers and gossipers mingled 
are seen laughing, chatting and singing 
to the accompaniment of the drum. 
Some of these women are really hand- 
some, and are freely decorated, even in 
public, with the singular enamels which 
are their peculiar manufacture, and with 
threads of gold in their graceful che- 
loukas or tunics. 

But Kalaa, like the picturesque " Peas- 



ant's Nest" described by Cowper in his 
Task, pays one natural penalty for the 
rare beauty of its site. It pants on a 
rock whose gorges of lime are the seat 
of a perpetual thirst. In vain have the 
suffering natives sunk seven basins in 
one alley of the town, the cleft separating 
the quarter of the Son of David from 
that of the children of Jesus [Aissa). 
The water only trickles by drops, and, 
though plentiful in winter, deserts them 
altogether in the season when their air- 
hung gardens, planted in earth broughi 
up from the plains, need it the most. 
As the mellowing of the season brings 
with it its plague of aridity, recourse is 
had to the river at the bottom of the 
ravine, the Oued-Hamadouch. Then 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



99 



from morning to night perpendicular I are seen descending and ascending the 
chains of diminutive, shrewd donkeys | precipice with great jars slung in net- 




-Uela. 
KAllYLE GROUP. 



work. But the Hamadouch itself in the i ulation counting three thousand mouths, 
sultry season is but a thread of water, I Then the folks of Kalaa would die of 
easily exhausted by the needs of a pop- I thirst were it not for the foresight of a 



lOO 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



marabout of celebrity, whom chance or 
miracle caused to discover a hidden 
spring at the bottom of the rock. By 
the aid of subscriptions among the rich 
he built a fountain over the sources of 
the spring. 

It is a small Moorish structure, with 



two stone pilasters supporting a pointed 
arch. In the centre is an inscription 
forbidding to the pious admirers of the 
marabout the use of the fountain while 
a drop remains in the Hamadouch. To 
assist their fidelity, the spring is effect- 
ually closed except when all other sources 




yusef's fountain. 



have peremptorily failed, in the united 
opinion of three amins (Kabyle sheikhs). 
When the amins give permission the 
chains which restrain the mechanism 
are taken off, and the conduits are open- 
ed by means of iron handles operating 
on small valves of the same metal. In 
the great droughts the fountain of Mara- 
bout Yusef-ben-Khouia may be seen sur- 
rounded with a throng of astute, white- 
nosed asses, waiting in philosophic calm 
amid the excitement and struggle of the 
attendant water-bearers. 

Seen hence, from the base of the pre- 



cipice, where abrupt pathways trace their 
zigzags of white lightning down the rock, 
and where no vegetation relieves the 
harsh stone, the town of Kalaa seems 
some accursed city in a Dantean Inferno. 
Seen from the peaks of Bogni, on the 
contrary, the nest of white houses cov- 
ered with red tiles, surmounted by a glit- 
tering minaret and by the poplars which 
decorate the porch of the great mosque, 
has an aspect as graceful as unique. In 
a vapory distance floats off from the eye 
the arid and thankless country of the 
Beni-Abbes. On every level spot, on 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



every plateau, is detected a clinging 
white town, encircled with a natural 
wreath of trees and hedges. They are 
all visible one from the other, and perk 
up their heads apparently to signal each 
other in case of sudden appeal : it is by 
a telegraphic system from distance to 
distance that the Kabyles are collected 




What a strange landscape ! And what 
a race, brooding over its nests in the 
eagles' crags ! Where on earth can be 
found so peculiar a people, guarding 
their individuality from the hoariest an- 
tiquity, and snatching the arts into the 
clefts of the mountains, to cover the 
languid races of the plains with luxuries 
borrowed from the clouds ! The jew- 
elry and the tissues, the bornouses and 
haiks, the blacksmith-work and am- 
munition, which fill the markets of Mo- 
rocco, Tunis and the countries toward 
the desert, are scattered from off these 
crags, which Nature has forbidden to 
man by her very strongest prohibi- 
tions. 

We are now in the midst of what 
is known as Grand Kabylia. The 
coast from Algiers eastward toward 
Philippeville, and the relations of some 
of the towns through which we have 
passed, may be understood from the 
following sketch : 



THE LATEST IMPROVED REAPER. 

for their incorrigible revolutions. Two 
ruined towers are pointed out, called by 
the Kabyles the Bull's Horns, which in 
1847 poured down from their battlements 
a cataract of fire on Bugeaud's chas- 
seurs d' Orleans, who climbed to take 
them, singing their favorite army-catch 
as well as they could for want of breath : 

As-tu vu la casquette, la casquette, 
As-tu vu la casquette du Pere Bugeaud? 

Far away, at the foot of the Azrou-n'hour, 
an immense peak hfting its breadth of 
snow-capped red into the pure azure, the 
populous town of Azrou is spread out 
over a platform almost inaccessible. 



Algiers 



AuiiiaJe. 



Dellys. 



« Bougie. 



Setif. * 



The scale of distances may be im- 
agined from the fact that it is eighty- 
seven and a half miles by sea from 
Algiers to Bougie. The country known 
as Grand Kabylia, or Kabylia par ex- 
cellence, is that part of Algeria form- 
ing the great square whose corners 
are Dellys, Aumale, Setif and Bougie. 
Though these are fictitioiis and not 
geographical limits, they are the near- 
est approach that can be made to fixing 
the nation on a map. Besides their 
Grand Kabylia, the ramifications of the 
tribe are rooted in all the habitable parts 
of the Atlas Mountains between Moroc- 
co and Tunis, controlling an irregular 
portion of Africa which it is impossible to 
define. It will be seen that the country 
of the tribe is not deprived of seaboard 
nor completely mountainous. The two 
ports of Dellys and Bougie were their 
sea-cities, and gave the French infinite 



102 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



trouble : the plain between the two is 
the great wheat-growing country, where 
the Kabyle farmer reaps a painful crop 
with his saw-edged sickle. 

In this trapezoid the fire of rebellion 
never sleeps long. As we write comes 
the report of seven hundred French 
troops surrounded by ten thousand na- 



tives in the southernmost or Atlas region 
of Algeria. The bloody lessons of last 
year have not taught the Kabyle sub- 
mission. It seems that his nature is 
quite untamable. He can die, but he is 
in his very marrow a republican. 
(end of part third.) 




THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



103 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA 

CONCLUDING PART, 





ABD-EL-KADER 



A NOBLE life, whose course belongs 
to the subject of these pages, is, 
while they are preparing, apparently 
drawing to a close. The severe illness 
now reported of Abd-el-Kader, coming 
upon old age, disappointment, war and 
the lassitude of a great purpose foiled, 
can have but one result. Dimmed to- 
day, as our hurrying century so rapidly 
dims her brightest renowns, Abd-el- 
Kader's existence has only to cease and 
his memory will assume the sacred 
splendor of the tomb. 

Hapless Washington of a betrayed 
revolution ! In these latter days of en- 
forced quiet in Palestine how his early 
scenes of African experience must have 



flooded his mind! — his birth, sixty-six 
years ago, in a family group of Moslem 
saints ; the teachings of his beautiful 
mother Leila and of his marabout father ; 
his pilgrimage when eight years old to 
Mecca, and his education in Italy ; his 
visions among the tombs, and the crown 
of magic light which was seen on his 
brows when he began to taste the en- 
chanted apple; then, with adolescence, 
the burning sense of infidel tyranny that 
made his home at Mascara seem only a 
cage, barred upon him by the unclean 
Franks ; and soon, while still a youth, 
his amazing election as emir of Mascara 
and sultan of Oran, at a moment when 
the prophet-chief had just four oukins 



I04 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



(half-dimes) tied into the corner of his 
bornouse ! 

"Godwin send me others," said young 
Abd-el-Kader. 



The tourist remembers the trinity-por- 
trait of him, by Maxime David, in the 
Luxembourg Gallery at Paris, where his 
face, framed in its white hood, is seen 




AN AGHA OF KAKYLIA HUNTING WITH THE FALCON. 



in full, in profile and in three-quarters 
view. The visage is aquihne, olive- 
tinted, refined; but we can describe it 



more authentically in the terms of one 
of his enemies, Lieutenant de France, 
who became his prisoner in 1836, and 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



105 



who followed his movements for five 
months, taking down his daily talk and 
habits like a Boswell, but leavinsr noth- 



ing in his narrative that is not to the 
sultan's credit. Of Abd-el-Kader at 
twenty-eight the lieutenant says : " His 




THE DISCIPLES OF TOFAIL. 



face is long and deadly pale, his large I rather aquiline : his beard is thin, but 
black eyes are soft and languishing, his | jet-black, and he wears a small mous- 
mouth small and delicate, and his nose i tache, which gives a martial character 



io6 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



to his soft, delicate face, and becomes 
him vastly. His hands are small and 
exquisitely formed, and his feet equally 
beautiful." Every interlocutor leaves a 
similar portrait, impressing upon the 
mind the image of some warrior-saint 
of the Middle Ages, born too late, and 



beating out his noble fanaticism against 
our century of machines and chicanery. 
Himself, according to some accounts, 
a Berber, the young marabout early saw 
the importance of inducing the Kabyles 
to join with him and his Arabs in expel- 
ling the French. He affiliated himself 




A KOUKBA, UK MARAbUU 1 'S TOMB. 



with the religious order of Ben-abd-er- 
Rhaman, a saint whose tomb is one of 
the sacred places of Kabylia ; and it is 
certain that the college of this order fur- 
nished him succor in men and money. 
He visited the Kabyles in their rock- 
built villages, casting aside his military 
pomp and coming among them as a 
simple pilgrim. If the Kabyles had 
received him better, he could have 
shown a stouter front to the enemy. 
But the mountain Berbers, utterly un- 
used to co-operation and subordination, 
met him with surprise and distrust. 

At least, such is the account of Gen- 
eral Daumas : in this interesting relation 
we are forced to depend on the French. 
Daumas, amply provided with docu- 
ments, letters and evidence, has ar- 



ranged in his work on La Grande Ka- 
bylie the principal evidence we possess 
of this epoch of Abd-el-Kader's life. 

The chief appeared in 1836 at Bordj- 
Boghni and at Si-Ali-ou-Moussa among 
the mountains. The Kabyle tribes vis- 
ited him in multitudes. He addressed 
them at the door of his tent, and these 
rude mountaineers found themselves 
face to face with that saintly sallow vis- 
age, those long gazelle eyes and the 
prophetic countenance framed in its 
apostolic beard. Raising his arms in 
the attitude of Raphael's Paul at Lystra, 
he said simply, " I am the thorn which 
Allah has placed in the eye of the 
Franks. And if you will help me I will 
send them weeping into the sea." 

But when it came to a demand for 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



107 



supplies, the Kabyles, says Daumas, 
utterly refused. 

"You have come as a pilgrim," said 
their amins, "and we have fed you with 
kouskoussu. If you were to come as a 
chief, \^ishing to lay his authority on us, 
instead of white kouskoussu we should 



treat you to black kouskoussu " (gun- 
powder). 

Abd-el-Kader, without losing the se- 
renity of the marabout, argued with the 
Kabyles, and succeeded in obtaining 
their reverence and adhesion ; but when 
he mounted his horse to go the amins 




KABYLE MEN. 



significantly told him to come among 
then, always as a simple pilgrim, de- 
mandmg hospitality and white kous- 
koussu. 

At Thizzi-Ouzzou he met the tribe of 
Ameraouas, who promised to submit to 
his authority as soon as the fractions 
surrounding that centre should do so. 
The Sons of Aicha received him with 
honor and games of horsemanship. At 
the camp of Ben Salem the chiefs of 
several tribes came to render homage to 
the noble marabout, descendant of Ber- 
oer ancestry and of the Prophet. From 
thence he sought tribes still more wild, 
discarding his horse and appearing 
among the villagers as a simple foot- 



pilgrim. The natives approached him 
in throngs, each family bearing a great 
dish of rancid kouskoussu. Laying 
the platters before his tent and plant- 
ing their clubs in them, all vociferated, 
"Eat! thou art our guest;" and the 
chieftain was constrained to taste of 
each. Finally, near Bougie he happen- 
ed to receive a courier sent by the 
French commandant. The Kabyles im- 
mediately believed him to be in treason- 
able communication with the enemy, and 
he was forced to retire. 

The young chief was in fact at that 
time in peaceful communication with the 
French, having made himself respected 
by them in the west, while they were 



io8 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



attending to the subjugation of Constan- 
tina and founding of Philippeville in the 
east. Protected by the treaty of Taafna 



in 1837, Abd-el-Kader was at leisure to 
attempt the consolidation of his little 
empire and the fusion of the jealous 




KABYLE WOMEN. 



tribes which composed it. The low 
moral condition of his Arabs, who were 
for the most part thieves and cowards, 
and the rude individuality of his Ka- 



byles, who would respect his religious but 
scoff at his political claims, made the 
task of the leader a difficult one. To 
the Kabyles he confided the care of his 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



109 



saintly reputation, renouncing their con- 
tributions, and asking only for their 
prayers as a Berber and as a khouan of 
the order of Ben-abd-er-Rhaman. For 
a few years his power increased, without 
one base measure, without any soilure 
on the blazon of increasing prosperity. 
In 1840 the sultan of Oran, at the zenith 
of his influence, swept the plains beneath 
the Atlas with his nomad court, defend- 
ed by two hundred and fifty horsemen. 
Passing his days in reviewing his troops 
and in actions of splendid gallantry, he 
resumed the humility of the saint at 
evening prayers : his palace of a night 
received him, watched by thirty negro 
tent-guards ; and here he sheltered his 
lowly head, whose attitude was perpet- 
ually bowed by the habitual weight of 
his cowl. The French soon became 
jealous, and encroached upon their 
treaty. The duke of Orleans, we are 
told, had Abd-el-Kader's seal counter- 
feited by a Jewish coiner at Oran, and 
with passports thus stamped sent scout- 
ing-partiestowardthe sultan's dominions, 
protected by the sultan's- forged safe- 
conduct. Open conflict followed, and a 
succession of French razzias. In 1845, 
Colonels Pelissier and St. Arnaud, under 
Marshal Bugeaud, conducted that expe- 
dition of eternal infamy during which 
seven hundred of Abd-el-Kader's Arabs 
were suffocated in a cave-sanctuary of 
the Dahra. This sickening measure was 
put in force at a cul-de-sac, where a few 
hours' blockade would have command- 
ed a peaceful surrender, 

" The fire was kept up throughout the 
night, and when the day had fully dawn- 
ed the then expiring embers were kicked 
aside, and as soon as a sufficient time 
had elapsed to render the air of the 
silent cave breathable, some soldiers 
were directed to ascertain how matters 
were within. They were gone but a few 
minutes, and then came back, we are 
told, pale, trembling, terrified, hardly 
daring, it seemed, to confront the light 
of day. No wonder they trembled and 
looked pale ! They had found all the 
Arabs dead — men, women, children, all 
dead ! — had beheld them lying just as 
death had found and left them — the old 



man grasping his gray beard ; the dead 
mother clasping her dead child with the 
steel gripe of the last struggle, when all 
gave way but her strong love." 

Abd-el-Kader's final defeat in 1848 
was due less to the prowess of Lamori- 
ciere and Bugeaud than to the cunning 
of his traitorous ally, the sultan of Mo- 
rocco, who, after having induced many 
of the princely saint's adherents to de- 
sert, finally drove him by force of num- 
bers over the French frontier. Confront- 
ing the duke of Aumale on the Morocco 
borders, he made a gallant fight, but 
lost half his best men in warding off an 
attack of the Mencer Kabyles. Fatigued 
now with a long effort against over- 
whelming pressure, and world-weary, 
he met the duke at Nemours, on the sea- 
coast close to the Morocco line. Depos- 
iting his sandals, Arab-fashion, outside 
the French head-quarters, he awaited the 
duke's signal to sit down. 

" I should have wished to do this 
sooner," said the broken chief, "but I 
have awaited the hour decreed by Al- 
lah. I ask the aman (pardon) of the 
king of the French for my family and 
for myself." 

Louis Philippe could not come in con- 
tact with this pure spirit without an 
exhibition of Frankish treachery, like 
tinder illuminating its foulness at the 
striking of steel. The sultan's surrender 
was conditioned on the freedom to retire 
to Egypt. The French government no 
sooner secured him than it treacherously 
sent him to prison, first to the castle of 
Pau, then to that of Amboise near Blois,. 
where he was kept from 1848 to 1852, 
when the late emperor made an early 
use of his imperial power to set him at 
liberty. Since his freedom, at Constan- 
tinople, Broussa and Damascus the ex- 
sultan has continued to practice the rig- 
ors and holiness of the Oriental saint, 
proving his catholic spirit by protecting 
the Christians from Turkish injustice, 
and awaiting with the deep fatigue of a 
martyr the moment destined to unite his 
soul with the souls of Washington, Boz- 
zaris and L'Ouverture. 

This noble life, which impinges a mo- 
ment on our course through Kabylia, is 



no THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 

surely the most epical of our century, I lack of a hero while Abd-el-Kader's 
which can never be reproached for the | name is remembered. 




DEFILE OF THIFILKOULT. 



The descent from the rock-perched I the first plateau, our Roumi traveler and 
city of Kalaa having been made in safe- his guides arrive in a few hours at the 
ty, and the animals being remounted at | modern, fortified, but altogether Ka- 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



bylian stronghold of Akbou. Here a 
letter from a French personage of im- 
portance gives us the acquaintance of a 
Kabyle family of the highest rank. 

The ancestors of Ben-Ali-Cherif, re- 
motely descended from Mohammed 
through one of his sisters, were of Ka- 
byhan race, and one of them, settled in 
Chellata, near Akbou, founded there a 
prosperous college of the Oriental style. 
Ben-AU-Cherif, born in Chellata and 
residing at Akbou, receives the tourist 
with a natural icy dignity which only a 
czar among the sovereigns of Europe 
could hope to equal : those who have 
but seen Arabs of inferior class can form 
no notion of the distinction and lofty 
gravity of the chiefs of a grand house 
(or of a grand tent, as they are called) : 
the Kabyle noble is quite as superb as 
the Arab. 

Ben-Ali seats us at a rich table cover- 
ed with viands half French and half 
Oriental : a beautiful youth, his son, 
resembling a girl with his blue head- 
drapery and slim white hands, places 
himself at table, and attracts the con- 
versation of the guest. The young man 
answers in monosyllables and with his 
large eyes downcast, and the agha sig- 
nificantly observes, "You will excuse 
him if he does not answer : he is not 
used to talk before his father." 

The host, disposing of the time of his 
guests, has arranged a series of diver- 
sions. The valley of the river Sahel is 
full of boars, and panthers and monkeys 
abound in the neighboring spurs of the 
Zouaouas. While the Roumi are ex- 
amining his orchards of oranges and 
pomegranates the agha's courtyard fills 
wi<h guests, magnificent sheikhs on Bar- 
bary horses, armed with inlaid guns. 
These are all entertained for the night, 
together with the usual throng of para- 
sites, who choke his doors like the clients 
of the rich Roman in Horace. 

At sunrise the party is mounted. The 
mare of the agha, a graceful creature 
whose veins form an embroidery over 
her coat of black satin, is caparisoned 
with a slender crimson bridle, and a 
saddle smaller than the Arab saddles 
and furnished with lighter stirrups. The 



Christian guests are furnished with ver- 
itable arquebuses of the Middle Ages; 
that is to say, with Kabyle guns, the 
stock of which, flattened and surmount- 
ed with a hammer of flints, is ignited by 
a wheel-shaped lock, easier to be man- 
aged by a Burgundian under Charles 
the Bold than by an unpretending mod- 
ern Roumi. 

The usual features of an Algerian hunt 
succeed. A phantom-like silence per- 
vades the column of galloping horsemen 
up to the moment when the boar is beat- 
en up. Then, with a formidable clamor 
o{ " Haou ' haou !" from his pursuers, 
the tusked monster bursts through the 
tamarinds and dwarf palms : after a long 
chase he suddenly stops, and then his 
form instantly disappears under the gi- 
gantic African hounds who leap upon 
him and hang at his ears. A huntsman 
dismounts and stabs his shoulder with 
the yataghan. After a rest the chase is 
resumed, but this time under the form 
of a hawking-party. 

Only the djouads and marabouts — that 
is to say, the religious or secular nobles 
— have the privilege of hunting with the 
falcon. The patrician bird, taken by 
the agha from the shoulder of his hawk- 
bearer, is about 'as large as a pigeon, the 
head small, beak short and strong, the 
claws yellow and armed with sharp tal- 
ons. The bird rides, upon his master's 
leather glove until a hare is started : 
then, unhooded and released, his first 
proceeding is to dart into the zenith as 
if coinmissioned to make a hole in the 
sky. No fear, however, that the poor 
panting quarry is lost for an instant from 
the vision of that infallible eye, which 
follows far aloft in the blue, invisible and 
fatal. Soon the cruel bird drops like an 
aerolite, and, as the deed is explained to 
us, doubles up his yellow hand into a 
fist, and deals the animal a sharp blow 
on the skull. Directly, as the horsemen 
approach, he is found with his obtuse 
head bent over his prey, digging out its 
eyes by the spoonful. 

By noontide the troop is naturally 
famished. A luncheon, has, however, 
been prepared by the thoughtfulness ot 
the agha. Riding up to a tent which ap- 



112 THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 

pears as by magic in the wilderness, the I discovered. Two fires are burning in 
provisions for a sumptuous repast are | the open air, and are surrounded by a 




host of servants or followers. The Rou- I borhood of the preparations, and are 
mi and their host adjourn from the neigh- | served under a plane tree beautiful as 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



113 



that whose Umbs were hung by Xerxes 
with bracelets. A soup, absolutely set 
on fire with red pepper, introduces the 
repast : pancakes follow, and various 
meats smothered with eggs or onions. 
Then two half-naked cooks stagger up 
bearing on a wooden dish, under a gold- 
bordered napkin, a sheep roasted entire 
and still impaled with the spit. The 
chief cook takes hold of the skewer and 
draws it violently toward himself, apply- 
ing a smart stroke with his naked heel 
to the tail of the creature — a contact 
which would seem almost as trying as 
the ancient ordeal of the ploughshares, 
or as the red-hot horseshoes which the 
fire-eating marabouts are accustomed to 
dance upon. The Roumi travelers taste 
the succulent viand, taste again, eat till 
ashamed, and are ready to declare that 
never was mutton properly dressed be- 
fore. If possible, they vow to introduce 
the undissected roast, the bonfire, the 
spit and the cook with imperturbable 
heel into the cuisine of less-favored lands 
more distant from the sun. 

Champagne, which the cunning IVlus- 
sulmans do not consider as wine^ washes 
the meal, and coffee and pale perfumed 
tobacco supplement it. But when the 
appetite has retired and permitted some 
sharpness to the ordinary senses, the 
travelers are amazed at the gradual and 
silent increase which has taken place in 
their numbers. Every group of guests 
is augmented by a circle of prone and 
creeping forms that, springing apparent- 
ly from the earth, are busily breaking 
the fragments of the feast under the care 
of the servitors, who appear rather to 
encourage than repel them. Ben-Ali- 
Cherif, being interrogated, replies calm- 
ly, "They are Tofailians." 

The Tofailian is a parasite on system, 
an idler who elevates his belly into a 
divinity, or at least a principle. His 
prophet or exemplar is a certain Tofail, 
whose doctrine is expressed in a few 
practical rules, respectfully observed and 
numerously followed. " Let him who at- 
tends a wedding-feast," says one of his 
apophthegms, "having no invitation, 
avoid glancing here and there dubious- 
ly. Choose the best place. If the guests 



are numerous, pass through boldly with- 
out saluting any one, to make the guests 
of the bride think you a friend of the 
bridegroom, and those of the groom a 
friend of the bride." 

An Arab poet said of Tofail : " If he 
saw two buttered pancakes in a cloud, 
he would take his flight without hesita- 
tion." 

A Tofailian of marked genius once 
learned that a festival was going on at 
a grand mansion. He ran thither, but 
the door was closed and entrance im- 
possible. Inquiring here and there, he 
learned that a son of the house was 
absent on the Mecca pilgrimage. In- 
stantly he procured a sheet of parch- 
ment, folded it, and sealed it as usual 
with clay : he rolled his garments in the 
dust and bent his spine painfully over a 
long staff. Thus perfect in what an 
actor would call his reading, he sent 
word to the host that a messenger had 
arrived from his son. "You have seen 
him?" said the delighted Amphitryon, 
"and how did he bear his fatigues?" 
" He was in excellent health," answer- 
ed the Tofaihan very feebly. "Speak, 
speak!" cried the eager father, "and 
tell me every detail : how far had he 
got?" "I cannot, I am faint with hun- 
ger," said the simple fellow. Directly 
he was seated at the highest place of 
the feast, and every guest admired that 
splendid appetite — an appetite quite .pro- 
fessional, and cultivated as poulterers 
cultivate the assimilative powers of livers. 
" Did my son send no letter ?" asked the 
poor father in a favorable interval caused 
by strangulation. "Surely," rephed the 
good friend, and, comprehending that 
the critical moment had arrived, he 
drew to himself a chine of kid with one 
hand while he unwound the letter from 
his turban with the other. The seal was 
still moist, and the pilgrim had not found 
time to write anything on the parchment. 
"Are you a Tofailian ?" asked the host 
with the illumination of a sudden idea. 
"Yea, in truth, verily," said the stranger, 
struggling with his last mouthful. " Eat, 
then, and may Sheytan trouble thy di- 
gestion !" The parasite was shown the 
door, but he had dined. 



.j^;o|^ iy)F. 



114 



THE ROUMl IN KABYLIA. 



Men of rank and wealth, like Ben- 
Ali-Cherif, turn the Tofailian into a pro- 
verb, and thus laugh at a plague they 
cannot cure. 

The Algerine coast has enriched our 
language with at least two words, re- 
spectively warlike and peaceful — razzia 
diiid fantasia. The latter is applied to a 



game of horsemanship, used to express 
joy or to honor a distinguished friend. 
A spirited fantasia is organized by the 
guests of the agha on returning to Ak- 
bou. Twenty of the best-mounted horse- 
men having gone on before, and being 
completely lost to sight in the whirlwind 
of- dust created by their departure, all 




POVERTY AND JEWELS, 



.of a sudden reappear. Menacing their 
host and his companions like an army, 
they gallop up, their bornouses flying 
and their weapons flashing, until at a 
few paces they discharge their long guns 
under the bodies of the horses opposite, 
and take flight like a covey of birds. 
Loading as they retire and quickly form- 
ing, again they dash to the charge, shout- 



ing, galloping, and shooting among the 
legs of their host's fine horses : this sham 
attack is repeated a score or two of times, 
up to the door of the agha's house. The 
Bedouins, in their picturesque expression, 
are making the powder talk. Finer horse- 
manship can nowhere be seen. Their 
horses, accustomed to the exercise, enter 
into the game with spirit, and the riders, 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



115 



secure in their castellated saddles, sit with 
ease as they turn, leap or dance on two 
feet. Used, too, from infancy to the 
society of their mares, they move with 
them in a degree of unity, vigor and 
boldness which the English horseman 
never attains. The Arab's love for his 
horse is not only the pride of the cava- 



lier : it is an article of faith, and the 
Prophet comprehended the close unity 
between his nation and their beasts when 
he said, "The blessings of this world, 
up to the day of judgment, shall be sus- 
pended to the locks which our horses 
wear between their eyes." 

Truly the Oriental idea of hospitality 




GEORGE CHRISTY IN AFRICA. 



has its advantages — on the side of the 
obliged party. This haughty ruler, on 
the simple stress of a letter from a French 
commandant, has made himself our serv- 
ant and teased his brain for devices to 
amuse us. His chief cook precedes us 
to his birthplace at Chellata, to arrange 
a sumptuous Arab supper. After a ride 
made enervating by the simoom, we de- 
scend at the arcaded and galleried Moor- 
ish house where Ben-Ali-Cherif was born, 
and are visited by the sheikh of the col- 
lege which the agha maintains. It is a 



strang'e, peaceful, cloistered scene, con- 
secrated to study and hospitality. Chel- 
lata, white and silent, sleeps in the gi- 
gantic shadow of the rock Tisibert, and 
in its graveyard, among the tombs of 
sacred marabouts, walk the small bald- 
headed students reciting passages of law 
or of the Koran. Algeria is dotted over 
with institutions [zaouias) similar to this, 
which, like monasteries of old, combine 
the functions of seminaries and gratuitous 
inns. That of Ben-Ali-Cherif, to which 
he contributes from his own purse a sum 



ii6 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



equal to sixteen thousand dollars a year, [ 
is enshrined in buildings strewn around 
the resting-place of his holy ancestors. 
The sacred koubba (or dome) marking 
the bones of the marabout is swept by 
shadows of oak and tamarind trees : 
professors stray in the shadow, and the 
pupils con their tasks on the adjoining 
tombstones. 

Every impression of Chellata is silver- 
ed over, as with a moonlight of benef- 
icence, by the attentions of Ben-Ali's 
house-steward, who rains upon our ap- 
petites a shower of most delicious kous- 
koussu, soothes us with Moorish coffee, 
and finishes by the politeness of lighting 
and taking the first whiff of our cigarette 
— a bit of courtesy that might be spared, 
but common here as in parts of Spain. 

With daybreak we find the town of 
Chellata preparing to play its role as a 
mart or place of industry. The labor 
seems at first sight, however, to be con- 
fined to the children and the women : 
the former lead the flocks out at sunrise 
to pasture in the mountain, the women 
make the town ring with their busy work, 
whether of grinding at the mill, weaving 
stuff or making graceful vases in pottery. 
The men are at work in the fields, from 
which they return at nightfall, sullen, 
hardy and silent, in their tattered haiks. 
These are never changed among the 
poor working-people, for the scars of a 
bornouse are as dignified as those of the 
body, and are confided with the garment 
by a father to his son. The women, as 
we have remarked before, are in a state 
of far greater liberty than are the female 
Arabs, but it is more than anything else 
the liberty to toil. Among these moun- 
taineers the wife is a chattel from whom 
it is permissible to extract all the useful- 
ness possible, and whom it is allowable 
to sell when a bargain can be struck. 
The Kabyle woman's sole recreation is 
her errand to the fountain. This is 
sometimes situated in the valley, far 
from the nodding pillar or precipice on 
which the town is built. There the trav- 
eler finds the good wives talking and 
laughing together, bending their lively 
— sometimes blonde and blue -eyed — 
faces together over their jars, and gos- 



siping as in Naples or as in the streets 
around Notre Dame in Paris. The Ka- 
byles — differing therein from the Arab? 
— provide a fountain for either sex ; and 
a visit by a man to the women's foun- 
tain is charged, in their singular code of 
penal fines, "inspired by Allah," a sum 
equal to five dollars, or half as much as 
the theft of an ox. 

By the white hght of day -dawn we 
quit Chellata, with the naked crests of 
the Djurjura printing themselves on the 
starry vault behind us and the valley 
below bathed in clouds. As we descend 
we seem to waken the white, red-roofed 
villages with our steps. The plateaus 
are gradually enhvened with spreading 
herds and men going forth to labor. 
We skirt the precipice of Azrou-n'hour, 
crowned with its marabout's tomb. The 
plains at our feet are green and glorious, 
pearled with white, distant villages. 
Opposite the precipice the granite rocks ' 
open to let us pass by a narrow portal 
where formerly the Kabyles used to 
stand and levy a toll on all travelers. 
This straitened gorge, where snow 
abounds in winter, and which has vari- 
ous narrow fissures, is named the Defile 
of Thifilkoult : it connects the highways 
of several tribes, but is impassable from 
December to April from the snow and 
the storms which rage among the cliffs. 
We are still four thousand feet above 
the plain, whose depth the swimming 
eye tries in vain to fathom, yet the snowy 
peaks above us are inaccessible. De- 
scending chains of rocks mingled with 
flint and lime, we attain a more clement 
landscape. Kabyle girls crowd around 
a well called the Mosquitoes' Fountain, 
a naked boy plays melancholy tunes on 
a reed, and the signs of a lower level 
are abundant in the fields of corn and 
orchards of olive. But the rugged moun- 
tains, in whose grasp we have found so 
many wonders, are not left without re- 
gret. The most picturesque part of our 
course is now behind us, and as day 
dies upon our crossing through Iferaou- 
enen, we turn back to behold the fine 
line of the mountains, half sad and re- 
gretful. 

While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa, 



THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA. 



Fourteen expeditions were found neces- 
sary by the French between 1838 and 
1857 to subdue the Kabyles, who under 
leaders such as Ben-Salem, Ben-Kassim, 
the Man-with-the-Mule, the Man-with- 
the-She-Ass, and other chiefs less cele- 
brated, defended their territory step by 
step. In the great chastisement of 1857, 
Marshal Randon, after subduing this part 
of the Djurjura ridge in detail, deter- 
mined to preserve the fruits of victory 
by two new constructions — a fort and 
a military road. France was to reside 
among her unwilling colonists, and she 
was to possess an avenue of escape. 
The building of these two conveniences, 
as we may call them, over the smoking 
ruins of victory, was a conspicuous ex- 
ample of the excellent engineering genius 
of the nation. An English officer. Lieu- 
tenant-colonel Walmsley, witnessed, and 
has left a spirited account of, the great 
conquest, and the immediate improve- 
ment of it. The strongholds of the 
Djurjura (it being May, 1857) were 
taken : the most difficult, Icheriden, was 
soon to fall, yielding only to the assault 
of the Foreign Legion — that troop of 
Arabs and of Kabyles from the Zouaoua 
plain wherefrom we derive the word zou- 
ave. Marshal Randon selected for his 
fort the key of the whole district : it was 
a place known as the Souk-el-Arba 
("Market of Wednesday"). It was in 
the heart of the Beni Raten land, and 
in a spot where three great mountain- 
ridges ran down into the plain of the 
Sebaou. These ridges, subdued and 
friendly, would be held in respect by 
the garrison of the fort, and the other 
ridge of Agacha, still rebellious, would 
likewise terminate at the fort. The 
works were immediately laid out and 
quickly built. As the road sprang into 
its level flight like magic, the peeping 
Kabyles, perfectly unaware that they 
were conquered, laughed in derision. 
"It is to help the cowards to run away," 
they said. In due time rose the pale 
walls of the citadel, with mountains 
above and hills below. The Kabyles 
call it the White Phantom. Their songs, 
the " traditions " of illiterate tribes, recite 



the building of the terrible stronghold : 
"The Roumi has arrived at the Market: 
he is building there. Weep, O my eyes ! 
tears of blood. The children of Raten 
are valiant men : they are known as 
masters of the warlike art. They fell 
upon the enemy at Icheriden. The 
Franks fell like lopped branches. Glory 
to those brave men ! But the Roumi 
has peeled us like seeds. The powder 
talks no more. The warlike men are 
fainting. Cover thyself with mourning, 
O my head !" 

As the tourist turns the summit of 
Aboudid suddenly appears, like an or- 
namental detail in a panorama, this 
vast fortress, originally named Fort Na- 
poleon, and since the collapse of the 
empire called Fort National. During 
the French troubles of 1871, in the 
month of August, General Ceres was 
obliged to inspire terror by burning the 
village of Thizzi-Ouzzou beneath, and 
then went on to relieve the fort. When 
the next opportunity will occur for the 
Beni Raten to assert their rights it is im- 
possible to tell. We descend from the 
fort, and all becomes commonplace. 
The charred ruins of Thizzi-Ouzzou in 
its valley-bed. are being replaced by 
new buildings. All wears a look of 
every-day thrift. The Arab, moving his 
household goods, drives before him his 
poor dingy wife, loade'd down with worth- 
less valuables and also with copper jew- 
els, in which she clanks like a fettered 
slave. A negro musician from the Des- 
ert, a true African minstrel, capers be- 
fore us and beats the tom-tom, until, 
distracted with his noise, we pay him 
and bombard him off the face of the 
road with projectiles. 

From Thizzi-Ouzzou to Algiers it is 
but four hours' journey, and the four 
hours are passM in a diligence. Yes, 
our circumstances are subdued to the 
conditions of the diligence ! Adieu, our 
spahi guides, hke figures from Lalla 
Rookh ! Adieu, our dream of an Afri- 
can Switzerland ! The Roumi, outside 
of Kabyha, quickly fades into the light 
of common day, and becomes plain 
Tom or Harry. 



ii8 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 

I.— THE COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN CHINA. 



WITHIN the last twenty years the 
East has opened wide its gates, 
and China, Japan and India are as anx- 



ious to become acquainted with the later 
but more fully developed civilizations of 
Europe and this country as we are to 




examine their social, political and indus- I from English, American, German and 
trial systems. We have had accounts ' French travelers in the East, each tinged. 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



119 



in a measure, with the national spirit of 
their respective countries. In the case 
of the traveler, as of the astronomer, a 
certain allowance, known as the per- 
sonal equation, has to be made in re- 
ceiving the accounts of his observations. 

The journey round the world made 
by the count de Beauvoir in company 
with the duke de Penthievre, son of the 
prince de Joinville, is entitled to especial 
notice, as the attentions shown to the 
travelers by the Chinese and Japanese 
authorities enabled them to obtain the 
best conditions for investigating various 
matters of interest. 

On landing at Shanghai their hearts 
v/ere gladdened by seeing "on the quay 
a French custom-house official, with his 
kepi over his ear, his rattan in his hand, 
dressed in a dark-green tunic, and full 
of the inquisitiveness of the customs in- 
spector — as martial and as authoritative 
as in his native land." The appearance 
of the population here struck our trav- 
elers as different from that of the native 
Chinese farther south. Those were yel- 
low, copper-colored, lean, and slightly 
clad in garments of cotton cloth ; these 
were rosy as children and fat as pigs : 
they were besides wrapped up in four 
or five pelisses, worn one over the other, 
lined with sheepskins, so that a single 
man smelt like a whole flock of sheep. 
Their style of dress was this : half a doz- 
en waistcoats without sleeves, covered 
with a single overcoat with extremely 
long sleeves, falling down to their knees. 
These garments made them resemble 
balls of wool rather than men. 

By accident, the party passed first 
through the quarter of the town devoted 
to the restaurants. Here they were for 
every grade of fortune, from the mil- 
lionaire to the ragged poor. The street 
filled with these latter was terrible : it 
swarmed with thousands of beggars, 
hardly human in form and almost naked, 
though there was frozen snow upon the 
ground. A group, seeming even joyous, 
attracted attention. The cause of their 
happiness was a dead dog which they 
had found in one of the gutters. Even, 
however, in this degradation the polite- 
ness of these people struck our French- 



men forcibly. The guests gathered about 
this fortuitous repast treated each other 
with a ceremonious deference strange 
enough in such surroundings. In a still 
lower stratum, however, among even a 
more degraded class, whose feasts were 
obtained from the live preserves carried 
upon their own persons, this politeness, 
the last quality a Chinaman loses from 
the degradation of poverty, was wanting. 

A few miles from Shanghai lies Zi-Ka- 
Wai, a colony founded by the Jesuits, 
of which our traveler gives a most in- 
teresting account. The road to Zi-Ka- 
Wai lay over a sandy plain intersected 
with canals. On both sides of the road 
were hundreds of coffins resting upon 
the surface of the ground. In the north- 
ern part of China there are no grave- 
yards, and the coffins were arranged 
sometimes in piles in the fields. It is 
said that they thus remain until a change 
takes . place in the reigning dynasty, 
when they are all destroyed. As the 
present dynasty has reigned about three 
hundred years, the accumulation may 
be imagined. This traditional respect 
for the inviolability of the dead is one 
of the chief obstacles in the way of the 
introduction of the telegraph and rail- 
road in China. A commercial house in 
Shanghai had built a telegraph to Wo- 
Soung to announce the arrival of the 
mail, but in a few dajs the wire was cut 
in more than five hundred placg s — at all 
the points where its shadow from the 
rising sun fell upon the coffins lying on 
the ground. 

At Zi-Ka-Wai the Jesuits have an 
educational institution, and, dressed in 
the Chinese costume, smoking the long 
native pipes, received their visitors with 
great cordiality. Their pupils are divided 
into three classes. The first consists of 
the children of the neighboiing towns 
who have been deserted by their parents 
and left to die of hunger. The majority 
of them are lepers, and have been more 
or less perfectly cured by the Fathers. 
When brought to the institution they are 
thoroughly cleaned, being rubbed with 
pumice stone. They receive an indus- 
trial as well as a literary education. In 
one building they are taught to read and 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



write, and in another are the schools for 
shoemaking, carpentering, printing and 
other manual arts ; so that, being re- 
ceived at the age of five or six, at twenty 
to twenty-one they are launched upon 
the world with an education and a trade. 



There are about four hundred children 
in this class, and the activity, the order 
and organization of the workshops, and 
the exquisite cleanliness of the surround- 
ings, are delightful to see. Near at hand 
is a school of a higher grade, to which 




the most promising pupils are transfer- 
red for the study of Chinese literature. 
The system of teaching here is peculiar : 
all the pupils are required to study aloud, 
and the din is in consequence deafening 
and incessant. Then there is the hisrh- 



est class, consisting of about two hun- 
dred and fifty youths, the sons of rich 
mandarins, who pay heavily for their 
instruction. These are destined to be- 
come rhetoricians, and, step by step, 
bachelors, licentiates, doctors, then man- 



SKETCHES OE EASTERN TRAVEL. 



darins and members of the governing 
class of the Middle Kingdom. The 
studies are Chinese, and the Fathers 
have with wonderful patience learned 
not only the Chinese language, as well 
as its written characters, but also the 
nice critical points of its idioms, so as 
to be able to teach with authority the 
poetry and legends and the commen- 
taries upon the writings of Confucius. 
This they have done for the purpose of 
having an opportunity to convert the or- 
phans they have adopted, and thus by de- 
grees introduce into the government an 
element which will be essentially Chris- 
tian. Thus far, the profession of Chris- 
tianity is not essentially incompatible 
with the office of mandarin, though it is 
impossible to hold this position without 
performing some idolatrous rites. 

On the 13th of March the ice was 
sufficiently broken to open the naviga- 
tion of the Pei-Ho, and the party started 
upon the steamer Sze-Chuen for Tien- 
Tsin and Pekin. They were joined by 
an English commissioner of the Chinese 
custom-house, whose position as a high 
functionary of the Celestial government, 
together with his knowledge of Chinese, 
proved of great service. The trip to 
Pekin was brought to a sudden tempo- 
rary close by the Sze-Chuen running 
aground on the bar of the Pei-Ho, where 
she remained nearly two days, but was 
finally got off after the removal of a 
part of her cargo. 

The navigation of the Pei-Ho is dif- 
ficult on account of the narrowness of 
the stream and its exceedingly sinuous 
course. Frequently the steamer had to 
be towed by a line passed on shore and 
fastened round a tree. At Tien-Tsin the 
travelers landed, and witnessed a review 
of some imperial cavalry regiments 
mounted upon Tartar ponies, with high 
saddles and short stirrups. The war- 
riors wore queues and were dressed in 
long robes. Their moustaches gave 
them, however, a fierce martial air, and 
they were armed with English sabres 
and American revolvers. 

Tien-Tsin ("Heaven's Ford") is a 
city of about four hundred thousand in- 
habitants, and lies at the junction of the 



Imperial Canal with the Pei-Ho. The 
country from here to Pekin, about three 
days' journey by land, is sandy, and 
the trip is made a very disagreeable one 
by the clouds of dust, which blind the 
traveler and effectually prevent any ex- 
amination of the country passed through 

The cavalcade comprised seven of the 
native carts, each drawn by two mules. 
Their construction may be thus de- 
scribed : A sort of barrow made of blue 
cloth hangs like a box upon an axletree 
about a yard long, furnished with two 
clumsy wheels. It is impossible to lie 
down in them, because they are too 
short, nor can a bench to sit on be placed 
in them, because they are too low. As 
a compensation, however, they are so 
hght that they can go anywhere. The 
driver sits on the left shaft, where he is 
conveniently placed for leaping down 
to beat the mules. These are harnessed, 
one in the shafts and the other in front, 
with long traces tied upon the axletree 
near the left wheel. As they are guided 
only by the voice, the course of t'ne cart 
depends chiefly upon the fancy they 
may take for following or neglecting the 
road ; while from the manner in which 
they are harnessed their draught is al- 
ways sideways, and they therefore trot 
obliquely. 

At Yang-Soun the party was joined 
by a mandarin with a crystal button, 
sent by the governor of the province of 
Tien-Tsin, Tchoung-Hao, with a pro- 
fusion of passports and safe-conducts. 
During the rest of the journey this man- 
darin, Ching, led the way in his cart 
drawn by a fine black mule, and on 
arriving at the villages on the route dis- 
played his function, as a man of letters, 
by putting on an immense pair of spec- 
tacles, the glasses of which were about 
three inches in diameter. At Ho-Chi- 
Wou the procession halted during the 
middle of the day, and was photograph- 
ed by one of its members. The curious 
crowd of spectators which gathered in 
every village to inspect the "foreign 
devils" scattered when the camera was 
posed, and for a few moments our trav- 
elers were freed from their intrusiveness. 

Starting next morning at daylight, at 



SKETCHES OF EASIERN TRAVEL. 




SKETCHES OE EASTERN TRAVEL. 



123 



ihree in the afternoon the party entered 
Pekin. The relief was great to leave 
the sandy, dusty road for one of the 
paved ways which radiate from the city. 
The first sight of the city struck the 
travelers as the most grandiose spectacle 
of the Celestial Empire. In front rose 
a high tower, with a five-storied roof of 
green tiles, pierced with five rows of 
large portholes, from which grinned the 
mouths of cannon ; while to the right 
and left, as far as could be seen, stretch- 
ed the gigantic wall surrounding the city, 
built partly of granite and partly of 
large gray bricks, with salients, battle- 
ments and loopholes, wearing a decided- 
ly martial air. This impression was 
somewhat modified, however, by the 
discovery that the grinning cannons 
were made of wood. The entrance 
v/as under a vaulted archway, through 
which streamed a converging crowd of 
Chinese, Mongols, Tartars, ivith their 
various costumes, together with blue 
carts, files of mules and caravans of 
heavily-loaded camels. 

Pekin was built by Kublai-Khan about 
1282, near the site of an important city 
which dated from the Chow dynasty, or 
some centuries before the Christian era. 
The city covers an enclosed space about 
twenty miles in circumference. It is 
rectangular in form, and divided into 
two parts, the Chinese and the Tartar 
cities. The walls of the Tartar city are 
the largest and widest, being forty to 
fifty feet high, and, tapering slightly 
from the base, about forty feet wide at 
the top. They are constructed upon a 
solid foundation of stone masonry rest- 
ing upon concrete, while the walls them- 
selves are built of a solid core of earth, 
faced with massive brick : the top is 
paved with tiles, and defended by a 
crenelated parapet. Bastions, some of 
which are fifty feet square, are built 
upon the outside at distances of about 
one hundred feet. There are sixteen 
gates, seven of which are in the Chinese 
town, six in the Tartar town, and three 
in the partition wall between these two. 
In the centre of the Tartar city is an 
enclosure, also walled, called the Impe- 
rial City, and within this another, called 



the Forbidden City, which contains the 
imperial palaces and pleasure-grounds. 
Broad straight avenues, crossing each 
other at right angles, run through the 
whole city, which in this respect is very 
unlike other Chinese towns. A stream 
entering the Tartar city near its north- 
west corner divides into two branches, 
which enter the Imperial City and sur- 
round the Forbidden City, and then 
ur'ting again pass through the Tartar 
and Chinese towns, to empty in the 
Tung-Chau Canal. 

The foreign legations are in the south- 
ern part of the Tartar city, on the banks 
of this stream. The top of the walls 
forms the favorite promenade of the for- 
eign settlers, and from here a fine view 
of the whole city is obtained. M. de 
Beauvoir, however, from his more min- 
ute examination, comes to the following 
conclusions: "This immense city, in 
which nothing is repaired, and in which 
it is forbidden under the severest penal- 
ties to demolish anything, is slowly dis- 
integrating, and every day changing 
itself into dust. The sight of this slow 
decomposition is sad, since it promises 
death more certainly than the most vio- 
lent convulsions. In a century Pekin 
will exist no longer; it must then be 
abandoned : in two centuries it will be 
discovered, like a second Pompeii, bur- 
ied under its own dust." 

The gates of Virtuous Victory and of 
Great Purity, the temples to the Heav- 
ens, to Agriculture, to the Spirit of the 
Winds and of the Thunder, and to the 
Brilliant Mirror of the Mind, occupied 
the attention of the party. They saw 
the gilded plough and the sacred har- 
row with which the emperor yearly traces 
a furrow to obtain divine favor for the 
crops, as well as the yellow straw hat he 
wears during this ceremony ; and also 
the vases made of iron wire in which he 
every six months burns the sentences 
of those who have been condemned to 
death in the empire. They visited also 
the magnificent observatory built by 
Father Verbiest, a Jesuit, for the emperor 
You-Ching, in the seventeenth century. 
The instruments are of bronze, and 
mounted upon fantastic dragons, and 



124 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



are still in good condition, though they 
have been exposed to the open air all 
this time. One of them was a celestial 
sphere eight feet in diameter, containing 
all the stars known in 1650 and visible 
in I'ckin. 



Visits to the theatres, to the temple of 
the Moon, that of the Lamas, that of 
Confucius, and to others made the days 
spent in Pekin pass quickly. Among 
the wonders shown was the largest sus- 
pended bell in the world— the great bell 




•of Moscow has never been hung — twen- 
ty-five feet high, weighing ninety thou- 
sand pounds, and richly sculptured. 

The private life of the Chinese it is 
almost impossible for a stranger to take 



part in. To do so requires a knowledge 
of Chinese, which can be gained only 
by years of assiduous study, and that 
the applicant should, as far as possible 
in dress and general appearance, make 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



himself a Chinese. Even then, com- 
plete success is gained only by a for- 
tunate combination of circumstances. 
The streets devoted to shops of all kinds 
afford, however, to the traveler a never- 
ending succession of changing and in- 
teresting pictures. Yet the general spirit 
of the Chinese leads them also to be 
sparing of all outward decoration, re- 
serving their forces for interior display. 
The Forbidden City even, though mar- 
velous stories are told of its interior 
splendors, has outside a mean appear- 
ance. "A pagoda of the thirty-sixth 
rank has more effect than the sacred 
dwelling of the Son of Heaven." 

In the military quarters, and in those 
inhabited by the nobility, the party in 
their wanderings were struck with an 
expression of disdain on the counte- 
nances of those natives whom they met. 
Elsewhere the curiosity to see the for- 
eigners was even greater than the Chi- 
nese themselves ever excited in the 
capitals of Europe ; but at home the 
higher classes passed the foreigners with- 
out even turning to look at them, or else 
glanced at them indifferently or disdain- 
fully. Some of the noble class walked, 
but generally they rode in carts similar 
to that of the mandarin Ching. The 
higher the rank of the owner, the farther 
behind are the wheels placed. With a 
prince's cart they are so far behind that 
the rider hangs between them and the 
mule. Palanquins, carried upon the 
shoulders of the porters, offer another 
and the most convenient means of loco- 
motion used in China : this method is, 
however, forbidden except for princes 
and ministers of state. 

In the busy streets of trade the scene 
is most animated. Thousands of scar- 
let signs with gilded inscriptions hang 
from oblique poles raised in front of the 
shops. Carts, palanquins, mules, cam- 
els, coolies, soldiers and merchants 
throng the streets, while to add to the 
confusion myriads of children play about 
your legs, and the old men carrying 
. their kites toward the walls add to the 
singularity of the scene. The kites, rep- 
resenting dragons, eagles, etc., are man- 
Aged with a dexterity which comes only 



from a lifelong practice. They arc some- 
times furnished with various solian at- 
tachments which imitate the songs of 
birds or the voices of men. The pigeons 
also in Pekin are frequently provided 
with a very light kind of aeolian harp,, 
which is secured tightly to the two cen- 
tral feathers of their tails, so that in fly- 
ing through the air the harps sound 
harmoniously. This curious, indistinct 
note had excited the count's attention, 
and he learned its cause from a pigeon 
which fell dead at his feet, having in its 
flight struck itself against the cord of 
one of the kites. Their use was ex- 
plained by the natives as a protection 
against the hawks which are vei-y com- 
mon in Pekin. 

Passing one day the place of execu- 
tion, the travelers were shocked to see 
that the heads of the executed were ex- 
posed to the public gaze, labeled with 
the crimes for which they had suffered. 
Such sights as this, with the terrible filth; 
of all the Chinese cities, the squalid suf- 
fering of the poor and the want of sym- 
pathy with indigence and disease, sug- 
gested to the count, as they too frequent- 
ly suggest to European visitors, that the- 
degradation of the Chinese is hopeless. 
Yet such sights were common a few 
generations ago in every European cap- 
ital, and the same causes which have 
led to their cessation there are at work 
to-day in China, and bid fair to produce 
the same results. 

The service of the custom-house, which . 
has been put into the hands of Euro- 
peans, and under the management of 
Mr. Robert Hart has been thoroughly 
organized, is having a great influence in 
civilizing the government, as well as in 
diffusing European ideas and methods 
among the people. A fixed rate of 
charges, an honesty of administration 
which is beyond question, prompt activ- 
ity in the transaction of business, have 
replaced the depredations and the old 
methods in use under mandarin rule. 
It is the desire of the manager of the 
custom-house to inaugurate in China the 
establishment of a system of lighthouses, 
to organize the postal system, to intro- 
duce railroads and telegraphs and to- 



\26 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 




SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



127 



open the coal-mines of the empire. 
Success in these ..reforms means bring- 
ing China into the circle of inter -de- 
pjn,dent civilized nations; and so far all 
the steps in this direction have been sure 
and successful ones. 

On leaving Pekin, our party set out to 
visit the Great Wall of China, which 
lies about three days' journey from that 
capital, on the route to Siberia. Mon- 
golian ponies served for the means of 
transportation on this trip. These shag- 
■gy little animals were as full of tricks as 
they were ugly. The cavalcade was fol- 
lowed by two carts for carrying the money 
of the expedition. The whole of this 
capital amounted to about one hundred 
and fifty dollars, in the form of hundreds 
of thousands of the copper coins of the 
country, made with holes in their centres 
and strung by the thousand upon osier 
twigs. This is the only money which 
circulates in the agricultural portions of 
China, and a "barbarian " has to give a 
pound weight of them for a couple of 
eggs. The country soon began to be- 
come hilly, with the mountains of Mon- 
golia visible in the distance. Trains of 
camels were passed, or could be seen 
winding in the plain below. 

The next day the party arrived at the 
Tombs of the Emperors. These are the 
tombs of the Ming emperors, one of the 
most briUiant dynasties of Chinese his- 
tory. They lie in a circular valley which 
opens out from a great plain, and is sur- 
rounded by limestone peaks and granite 
domes, forming a barren and waste am- 
phitheatre. The grandeur of its dimen- 
sions and the awful barrenness of its 
desolation make it a fit resting-place 
for the imperial dead of the last native 
dynasty. At the foot of the surround- 
ing heights thirteen gigantic tombs, en- 
circled with green trees, are arranged in 
a semicircle. Five majestic portals, about 
eight hundred yards apart, form the en- 
trance to the tombs. From the portico 
giving entrance to the valley to the 
tomb of the first emperor is more than 
a league, and the long avenue is mark- 
ed first by winged columns of white 
marble, and next by two rows of animals, 
carved in gigantic proportions. Of these 



there are, on either side, two lions stand- 
ing, two lions sitting ; one camel stand- 
ing, one kneeling ; one elephant stand- 
ing, one kneeling ; one dragon stand- 
ing, one sitting ; two horses standing ; 
six warriors, courtiers, etc. The lions 
are fifteen feet high, and the others equal- 
ly colossal, while each of the figures is 
carved from a single block of granite. 

At the end of the avenue are the tombs, 
with groups of trees about them. Each 
tomb is really a temple in which white 
and pink marble, porphyry and carved 
teak -wood are combined, not indeed 
with harmony or taste, but, what is rare 
in China, with lines of great purity and 
severity. One of the halls of these 
tombs is about a hundred feet long by 
about eighty wide. The ceiling is from 
forty to sixty feet high, and is supported 
by rows of pillars, each formed of a single 
stick of teak timber eleven feet in cir- 
cumference. These sticks were brought 
for this purpose from the south of China. 
Though they have been in position over 
nine hundred years, they appear as 
sound as when first posed, nor has the 
austere splendor of the structure suffered 
in any degree. 

The sombre obscurity well befits these i 
sepulchral dwellings, and the dull sound 
of the deadened gongs struck by the 
guardians makes the vaults reverberate 
in a singular and impressive way. Be- 
hind the memorial temple rises an arti- 
ficial mound about fifty feet high, access 
to the top of which is given by a rising 
arched passage built of white marble. 
On the top of the ipound is an imposing 
marble structure consisting of a double 
arch, beneath which is the imperial tab- 
let, a large slab, upon which is carved a 
dragon standing on the back of a gigantic 
tortoise. The remains of the emperor 
are buried somewhere within this mound, 
though the exact spot is not known : this 
precaution, it is said, was taken to pre- 
serve the remains from being desecrated 
in a search for the treasures which were 
buried with him, while the persons who 
performed this last office were killed 
upon the spot, in order further to pre- 
serve the secret. 

From this gigantic effort to preserve 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 




SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



129 



the memory of the dead our party has- 
tened to the Great Wall, an equally im- 
mense work to preserve the living from 
the incursions of their neighboring ene- 
mies. Perhaps nowhere in the world 
are to be found in such close proximity 
two such striking evidences of the waste 
of human labor when undirected by sci- 
entific knowledge. The wall is to-day, 
and was from the first, as worthless for 
the purpose it was intended to serve as 
the temples are for obtaining immortal- 
ity for the bodies they enclose. 

Leaving the town of Nang-Kao, the 
party soon found themselves at the en- 
trance of the pass of the same name, 
and during the six leagues which sepa- 
rated them from the wall the spectacle 
kept increasing in grandeur. The gorge 
at first was savage and sombre, shut 
in closely by the steep mountain-sides. 
Soon the first support of the Great Wall 
appeared in a chain of walls, with bat- 
tlements and towers, built over the prin- 
cipal mountain-chain, and as far as the 
eye could reach following all the peaks. 
The effect of this wall is most striking. 
Like some enormous serpent it stretches 
away in the distance, climbing rocks 
which appear impracticable, and which 
would be so without its aid. The count 
was convinced that it would be as dif- 
ficult to climb it for the purpose of de- 
fending it as it would be to do so in 
order to attack it. This first support of 
the wall is in itself a giant work. 

As the party advanced in the val- 
ley, in the far distance the crenelated 
outlines of two other similar and paral- 
lel walls appeared, situated also upon 
the crests. The Great Wall was built 
about 2CO B. c. as a barrier against the 
Tartar cavalry. It is said to have been 
built in twenty-two years. It was every- 
where constructed of the materials at 
hand. On the plains it was built of a 
core of earth, pounded, and faced with 
tiles, the top being also covered with 
tiles and furnished with a parapet. On 
the mountains of stratified rock the 
facing was made of masonry, and the 
core of earth and cobble-stones. Where 
che rock is such as fractures irregularly, 
9 



the wall is of solid masonry, tapering to 
the top, which is sharp. Throughout its 
whole length it is defended by towers 
occurring every few hundred feet. Ev- 
ery mountain-pass and weak point was 
defended by a fortified tower. At pres- 
ent the wall is in various conditions of 
preservation, according to the materials 
used in its construction. In the valleys, 
which were the points to defend, it has 
gradually crumbled to a mere heap of 
rubbish, which the plough year by year 
still further scatters. 

The Great Wall is, however, a won- 
derful monument of the labor and or- 
ganization of the Chinese nation two 
thousand years ago. The illustration is 
from a photograph taken on the spot by 
one of the party. In order to take a 
view which should be most effective the 
camera was placed upon the wall itself. 

On their return to Pekin the party vis- 
ited the ruins of the famous Summer 
Palace, Yuen-Ming-Yuen. The avenues 
were formerly adorned with porticoes, 
monuments and kiosques, which are 
now masses of ruins. Only two enor- 
mous bronze lions, the largest castings 
ever made in China, remain, and these 
simply because the allies could not carry 
them away. To have attempted it would 
have required the building of a dozen 
bridges over the streams between here 
and Tien-Tsin. The chapel of the Sum- 
mer Palace escaped destruction only 
from the fact that it was situated upon 
a rock so high that the flames did not 
reach it. Looking at the confused ruins 
which are all that remain of this won- 
derful collection of the most admirable 
products of fifteen ages of civilization, of 
art and of industry, the count de Beau- 
voir says truly that no honest man can 
help shuddering involuntarily. Though 
his sentiment of national loyalty is very 
strong, yet he cannot avoid exclaiming, 
" Let us leave this place : let us run from 
this spot, where the soil burns us, the 
very view of which humbles us. We 
came to China as the armed champions 
of civilization and of a religion of mercy, 
but the Chinese are right, a thousand 
times right, in calling us barbarians." 



130 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 

II.— BATAVIA. 



BATAVIA, ho ! and just ahead at 
that!" exclaimed the captain of 
our gallant East Indiaman as the en- 
tire party of passengers sprang to the 
quarter-deck on the first cry of " Land 
ahead !" It was scarcely five o'clock in 
the morning — not dawn between the 
tropics — but our impatience could brook 
no delay, and despite impromptu toilettes 
and yet unswabbed decks, with sluices 
of sea-water threatening us at every turn, 
we hastened forward to catch the earliest 
possible glimpse of the quaint old city 
of which we had heard such varied ac- 
counts. "You'll think a good part of it 
was built in Holland three centuries 
ago," said our captain, "then boxed up, 
sent across the waters, and dropped 
down, pell-mell, in the midst of the 
jungle." We all laughed incredulously 
at the time, but remembered his words 
afterward. 

Batavia, one of the strongholds of 
Dutch power in the East, occupies the 
north - western extremity of the island 
of Java. It is composed of two distinct 
settlements, known, respectively, as the 
"Old City" and the "New City." The 
former, built directly on the seaboard, 
consists mainly of warehouses, stores 
and government offices, with a pretty 
extensive mingling of native dwellings 
and bazaars. The business-houses oc- 
cupied by Europeans are all built in the 
old Dutch style of centuries ago, and 
their venerable appearance is largely 
augmented by the mould and discolora- 
tion of the sea-air ; while the tout ensem- 
ble presents an ancient and dilapidated 
aspect strangely at variance with the lux- 
uriant verdure of the tropical scenery and 
the brilliant tints of the picturesque Ori- 
ental costumes everywhere visible. The 
New City is a terrestrial Paradise, with 
broad avenues shaded by majestic trees, 
spacious parks, and palace - dwellings 
of indescribable elegance — a quaint com- 



mingling of city and country, of Oriental 
luxuriousness with the Hollander's cha- 
racteristic love of solidity. In truth, the 
New City is not a city at all, but a con- 
tinuous succession of beautiful villas em- 
bowered in orange groves, and surround- 
ed by palms and banians, upon which 
climb and clamber flowering vines and 
creepers innumerable, while birds are 
singing, bees humming and butterflies 
fluttering their gauzy wings, utterly re- 
gardless of the proprieties of city life. 

At eight o'clock we found ourselves in 
the custom-house, surrounded by Dutch 
revenue-officers, whose insignia of office 
seemed to consist of the huge bunches 
of keys with which they were armed. 
Their stylish uniforms and fair pale faces 
were singularly in contrast with the 
chocolate -colored skins, naked busts, 
scarlet girdles and green or yellow tur- 
bans of the crowds of native porters 
who stood ready to take charge of the 
baggage as fast as it was examined. 
Having seen our effects disposed of, we 
set out for our quarters in the New City, 
attended by the Bengalese comprador 
who was to serve as guide and purveyor- 
general during our stay in the island. 
We were driven in the neatest of pony 
palanquins, drawn by horses scarcely 
larger than Newfoundland dogs, over 
smooth, well-shaded roads, amid luxu- 
riant fields and meadows, and for a good 
portion of the route by the banks of a 
beautiful canal, all aglow with busy life. 
Here and there were sampans and bud- 
gerows, some loaded with merchandise, 
and others with passengers, their light 
sails spread and pennons gayly flaunt- 
ing in the breeze, while men, women and 
children, bathing and swimming in the 
smooth waters, sported like fish in their 
native element, and never dreamed of 
the possibility of danger. 

Among the majestic trees that formed 
natural archways above our heads, shut- 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



131 




132 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



ting out completely the sun's fervid rays, 
we noted especially the banians and 
cotton trees, the latter frequently be- 
sprinkling our heads and shoulders with 
what seemed at first glance a shower of 



bona fide snow, but on examination 
proved only the light, fleecy .down of 
sea-island cotton. Conspicuous among 
the trees we encountered on that pleasant 
morning drive was the Palmier du voy- 




ageur, more generally known as the 
talipai or priestly palm, which was 
described in a recent number of this 
magazine. 

One characteristic feature of Javanese 



residences is their superb baths. The 
pools are usually of marble or granite, 
of such huge dimensions that one may 
float and flounder like fish in a pond, 
while the superintendent of the bath 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



^3: 



keeps in constant play a brace of jets 
that send their sparkhng spray over the 
bather's head and shoulders with most 
refreshing results. The water is clear 
as crystal, and sufficiently cool for the 



relaxed state of the system in a tropical 
clime. Everybody bathes three times a 
day, and one would far sooner dispense 
with a meal than do without either of 
these stated baths. 




The usual routine of European life 
in India is to rise at "gun-fire" (five 
o'clock), go out for an airing in boat or 
palanquin for two full hours, bathe and 
dress at eight, take breakfast at nine. 



lunch at one, and siesta from two to four, 
when everybody retires, and, whether 
one wishes to sleep or not, he is secure 
of interruption, and has the full benefit 
of being e7i deshabille for the two most 



'34 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



oppressive hours of the day. At four the 
second bath is taken ; at five all go out 
in full dress in open carriages, and after 
a rapid drive over some of the public 
thoroughfares, the horses are walked 



slowly up and down the esplanade, where 
all the fashionable world assemble at 
this hour to see and be seen, and ex- 
change passing courtesies or comments. 
At half-past six "the course" is deserted. 




and brilliantly-lighted dining-rooms are 
thronged with guests eager to test the 
quality of the rich and varied delicacies 
of which an Oriental dinner consists. 
This is the principal meal of the day, 



and, occupying often two or three hours, 
it is made not merely an epicurean feast, 
but also an intellectual and social ban- 
quet. Strong coffee, served in the tini- 
est of porcelain cups, follows the guests 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



135 



on their return to the drawing-rooms, 
anr*. music, conversation, reading and 
conpany till up the hours till midnight, 
when the third bath is taken immediate- 
ly before retiring. This routine is sel- 
d'>m varied, except by the arrival of 
st "angers, bent, like our party at Bata- 
v'"', on sight-seeing. We soon wearied 




LIEUTENANT OF THE SULTAN'S GUARD. 

of the very voluptuousness of this stereo- 
typed course of indulgence, and wel- 
comed in preference the fatigues and 
annoyances of exploring the thousand 
objects of interest that were beckoning 
us onward to jungle, mountain or sea- 
coast. Our friends, who were old resi- 
dents, shook their heads knowingly, and 
prophesied sunstroke or jungle fever; 
but we went sight -seeing continually, 
filled our specimen baskets, arid escaped 
both fever and sunstroke. The climate 
of Batavia is, however, extremely insalu- 
brious for Europeans : a deadly miasma 
everywhere overshadows its luxuriant 
groves and lurks among the petals of 
its brightest flowers, rendering absolutely 



necessary regular habits of life. Before 
the occupation of the New City, when 
merchants and officers all resided on 
the seaboard, in the immediate vicinity 
of their business-places, the mortality 
was fearful, till utter depopulation seem- 
ed to threaten the colony. The inland 
location of the New City is more salubri- 
ous, and the extensive grounds that 
surround each dwelling give abun- 
dant freedom for ventilation, while 
the few hours passed by business or 
professional gentlemen at their offices 
— and those the best hours of the 
day, from breakfast to luncheon — 
are not deemed specially detrimental 
to health, even for foreigners. The 
Malays, Chinese and East Indians 
generally reside anywhere with im- 
punity. 

As our ship would be several weeks 
in port, discharging and taking in 
cargo, we availed ourselves of so 
fortunate an opportunity to explore 
some of the native settlements in the 
interior of the island. A Dutch of- 
ficer, long resident in Java, kindly 
offered his escort, and obtained for 
us such passes and other facilities as 
were nee.,ded. Our first stopping- 
place was at Bandong, the capital 
of one of the finest provinces of Java. 
It is under the nominal control of a 
native prince, who bears the title of 
" regent," holding his office under the 
government of Holland, from which 
he receives an annuity of about forty 
thousand dollars. Among the natives 
he maintains the state of a grand Orien- 
tal monarch, and his subjects prostrate 
themselves in profoundest reverence be- 
fore him ; but both he and his domain 
are really controlled by half a dozen res- 
ident Hollanders, at the head of whom 
is the prefect. The palace of the regent 
is a massive structure, completely sur- 
rounded by beautiful gardens ; and just 
beneath the windows where we sat I 
noticed a picturesque little lake, about 
which were sporting joyously at the 
evening hour a group of the young maid- 
ens of the palace. They were graceful 
and lovely in the careless abandon of 
their glee, but they no sooner perceived 



136 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



the white faces of the foreigners looking 
down at them than they fled hke fright- 
ened doves, hiding themselves in a 
grove of bananas, in any single leaf of 
which one of these dainty demoiselles 
might have clothed herself entire. 

We found the regent surrounded by 
crowds of native attendants, among 
whose prostrate forms we wended our 
way to his presence. He was seated 
on a raised dais at the upper end of 
the audience - hall, and received us 
with the courteous dignity of a well- 
bred gentleman. His dress was that 
ordinarily worn by Malayan rajahs — 
a brocade silk sarang fastened by a 
rich girdle, a loose upper garment of 
fine muslin, and a massive turban of 
blue silk wrought in figures of gold. 
Costly but clumsy Arabic sandals, 
and a diamond-hilted h'is or dagger 
of fabulous value, completed a cos- 
tume that looked both graceful and 
comfortable for a warm climate. He 
greeted the ladies of our party with 
marked empressement, thanked them 
for their visit, and conducted them in 
person to the entrance of the sera- 
glio to make the acquaintance of his 
wives and daughters. 

The next evening we were all in- 
vited to be present at the gavnne- 
lang, or orchestral and dramatic en- ^ 
tertainment, in the harem of this \ 
prince. The invitation was gladly 
accepted, and so novel an exhibi- 
tion I have seldom witnessed. 
Many of the musicians were masked, 
and wore queer-looking, conical caps 
that looked like exaggerated extinguish- 
ers, and a sort of light armor in which 
their unaccustomed limbs were evidently 
ill at ease. Occupying a conspicuous 
position in the very front, I noticed a 
Siamese ra^«a/ - player, robed in the 
native dress — or rather tmdress — of his 
country, and his hair cut a la Bangkok. 
He was singularly expert in the use of 
his instrument ; and I learned afterward 
that, though taken to Java as a slave, 
his great musical talents had won for 
him not only liberty, but the highest fa- 
vor of the regent of Bandong. He was 
the only rahnat-player in the gamme- 



lang, but there were some two hundred 
timbrels, half a dozen drums, ten or 
twelve tom-toms, twenty violins, sixteen 
pairs of cymbals, and any imaginable 
number of horns, flutes and flageolets. 
I leave the reader to imagine the amount 
of noise produced by such a combina- 
tion : my ears did not cease tingling for 




SOLDIER OF THE SULTAN S GUARD. 

a week. But everybody praised the mu- 
sic, and evidently enjoyed the fun. The 
dancing was like all Oriental dancing, 
very voluptuous and enthusiastic, adapted 
especially to display the exquisite charms 
©f the performers and move the passions 
of the audience. The play that followed 
possessed no merit, except in the bewil- 
dering beauty of the girlish actresses, 
and their superb adornments of natural 
flowers artistically arranged in coronets 
and wreaths, with costly pearls and dia- 
monds. The play itself was simply a 
farce — a series of ridiculous passages be- 
tween some lovesick swains and their 
rather tantalizing lady-loves, who event- 
ually escaped, amid a shower of roses 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



137 



and bon-bons, from their pursuers, and 
disappeared behind a huge pahn tree, 
which the next instant had vanished 
into air, roots, branches and all. 

After a somewhat adventurous ascent 
of Mount Tan-kon-bau-pra-hou, a hur- 
ried visit to the volcanoes of Merbabou 
and Derapi (the former nine thousand 
feet high, the latter eight thousand five 
hundred), and a ghmpse at the sacred 
woods of Wah-Wons, we turned our faces 
toward Sourakarta and Djokjokarta, the 
two grand principalities of Java still re- 
maining under native rule. Each is 
governed by an independent sultan, 
whom the Dutch have never been able 
to subjugate ; and they are allowed, only 
by sufferance, to keep a diplomatic agent 
or "resident" at the courts of these 
monarchs. We had been forewarned, 
ere setting out on our tour, of the state 
maintained by these proud Oriental 
princes, and the utter impossibility of 
obtaining an audience without fulfilling 
to the very letter all the requirements of 
courtly usage. So we had sent forward 
some costly presents to each of the sul- 
tans, with letters written in Arabic and 
French, praying for the honor of an in- 
terview. Our messenger to the court of 
Sourakarta soon returned, accompanied 
by a native officer and five soldiers in 
full uniform, with a courteous letter of 
welcome from the sultan to his capital. 
He did not say to his court, and we 
were left in doubt as to whether we 
should see him, after all. But the day 
of our entree was a most propitious one, 
as on that very morning this renowned 
monarch had been made the happy 
father of his twenty-eighth child. To 
this fortunate event we doubtless owed 
our reception at the court of this very 
exclusive potentate, who, we were told, 
almost invariably declined the proffered 
civilities of foreigners. Bonfires, illumi- 
nations and processions seemed the or- 
der of the day, business was suspended, 
bells were ringing, gongs sounding, and 
everybody was taking holiday, in com- 
memoration of an event that seemed to 
have lost none of its novelty even after 
nearly a score and a half of repetitions. 

The palace is built in pagoda form. 



with abundant architectural adornments, 
and is surrounded by a semicircle of 
smaller buildings of much the same ap- 
pearance, though somewhat less im- 
posing. The grandest view is at night, 
when the whole immense pile, from base 
to turret, is one blaze of light that but 
for the abundant tropical growth might 
be seen for miles away. The sultan is 
a well-informed and courtly gentleman, 
with a pohsh of mind and manners we 
were quite unprepared to find hidden 
away in the heart of Java. He is said 
to be the most distinguished of all the 
Malayan princes of this isle. He con- 
versed with readiness on the general 
aspect of political affairs in Europe and 
America, inquired for the latest intelli- 
gence, and before we left invited us to 
be present at a grand military review 
on the following day. The garb of the 
troops, both officers and men, consists 
of long silken sarangs confined by em- 
broidered girdles, gold or €\\vQr bangles in 
lieu of boots, and costly turbans adorned 
with precious stones — a garb that looked 
better suited to the harem than the bat- 
tle-field ; but their manoeuvres certainly 
did credit to their royal instructor in 
military tactics. The distinguishing 
weapon of Malayan soldiers, both in 
Java and elsewhere, is the kris, worn at 
the back and passed into the girdle. 
This is always carried both by officers 
and men, and very frequently civilians : 
the long sword is worn only by officers. 
After the review we were presented to 
the sultan's eldest son, a tall slender 
young man, somewhat over twenty, with 
fierce, gleaming black eyes, and a pro- 
fusion of black hair falling below his 
shoulders. His countenance indicated 
both intelligence and firmness, and his 
appearance might have been distingue 
but for his strangely effeminate dress of 
damask silk made like a girl's, his anklets 
and bracelets, gold chains and jeweled 
girdle, and a mitre-shaped coiffure of 
lalack and gold studded with enormous 
diamonds, any one of which would make 
the fortune of a Pall-Mall pawnbroker. 
A score of attendants about his own age 
were standing at the back of the young 
heir, while four diminutive dwarfs and 



I3S 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



four jesters in comic garb crouched at 
his feet, and innumerable other subordi- 
nates — such as the fan-holder, the hand- 
kerchief-holder, the tea- and bouquet- 
holders, etc. etc. — made up the retinue 



of this youthful dignitary. At a subse- 
quent interview the sonsoiihounan pre- 
sented me to his mother and several 
other ladies of the royal harem. The 
sultan was first married at the ag^e of 




THE ELDEST SON OF THE SULTAN OF SOURAKARTA. 



twelve, and had at the time of our visit 
forty-eight wives. 

There is very much to interest the 
tourist in this Javanese city, so unlike 
the Anglo-Oriental settlements one meets 



elsewhere in the East, nor does he soon 
weary of its noble sultan and splendid 
Oriental court; but time forbade our 
tarrying longer than the third day, after 
which we pressed onward to the neigh- 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



139 



boring principality of Djokjokarta. This 
is the name most conspicuous in Java- 
nese history, since there, from 1825 to 
1830, floated victoriously the colors of 
the revolt, and victory was purchased at 



last only by the blood of fifteen thousand 
soldiers, of whom eight thousand were 
Europeans, and Djokjokarta remained 
as it was before, an independent sove- 
reignty. The sultan, who belongs to an 




THE SULTAN OF DJOKJOKARTA. 



ancient family, is fine-looking, with a 
somewhat martial air, and a native dig- 
nity evidently the heritage of high birth. 
On our first interview he wore above the 
ordinary silk sarang a tight-fitting jacket 



of French broadcloth (blue), richly em- 
broidered and trimmed with gold lace. 
He displayed also a collection of crosses, 
stars, and other decorations conferred 
by various European powers, the French 



I40 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



predominating. He had evidently a 
partiality for la belle Frattce, and ex- 
hibited with no little pride an album 
containing photographs of Louis Phi- 
lippe and Louis Napoleon. He con- 
versed well in several languages, read- 
ily using either Arabic or French in lieu 
of his vernacular, and was evidently up 
to time in regard to the current polit- 
ical topics of the day. He introduced 
the ladies of our party to his young and 
beautiful sultana, and invited them to 
accompany her to the inner apartments 
of the harem. We found the private 
apartments of the seraglio, like so many 
others I visited all over the East, superb- 
ly magnificent in the display of gold and 
jewels, in costly carpets and exquisite 
hangings, in the most lavish exhibition 
of pictures, mirrors, statuettes and bijou- 
terie generally. There were glowing 
tints and warm, rich colors, but all was 
sensuous : wealth and splendor were 



everywhere visible, but neither modesty 
nor true womanly refinement. 

The sultan afterward entertained us 
by the exhibition of a curious collection 
of monkeys and apes. Some were of 
huge proportions, full four feet in height, 
and looking as fierce as if just captured 
fi'om their native jungles, while the tiny 
marmosets were scarcely eight inches 
long. The orang - outangs and long- 
armed apes had been trained to go 
through a variety of military exercises ; 
and when one of us expressed surprise 
at their seeming intelligence, the sultan 
said gravely, "They are as really men 
as you and I, and have the power of 
speech if they chose to exercise it. They 
do not talk, because they are unwilling 
to work and be made slaves of." This 
strange theory is generally believed by 
the Malays, in whose language orang- 
outa7ig is simply ''man of the woods." 
Fannie R. Feudge. 




SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



141 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 

III.— BANGKOK. 



WE left Singapore — which, though 
an English colony, is a very Ba- 
bel of languages and nations — in a Bom- 
bay merchantman, whose captain was 
an Arab, the cook Chinese, and the four- 
teen men who composed the crew belong- 
ed to at least half that many different na- 
tions, whilst our party in the cabin were 
English, Scotch, French and American. 
After eight days of rather stormy weath- 
er we disembarked at the mouth of the 
Meinam River, thirty miles below the 
city of Bangkok. Owing to the sand- 
bar at the mouth, large vessels must 
either partially unload outside, or wait 
for the flood-tide when the moon is full 
to pass the bar ; and to avoid the delay 
consequent upon either course, we took 
passage for the city in a native sampan 
pulled by eight men with long slender 
oars. The trip was a delightful one, 
giving us enchanting glimpses of the 
grand old city long before we reached 
it. Amid the mass of tropical foliage, 
gleaming out from among clustering 
palms and graceful banians, we could 
discern the gilded spires of gorgeous 
temples and palaces, of. which Bangkok 
boasts probably not less than two hun- 
dred. The temples, with their glittering 
tiles of green and gold, and graceful 
turrets and pinnacles from which hang 
tiny tinkling bells that ring out sweet 
music with every passing breeze, their 
tall, slender pagodas and picturesque 
monasteries, stand all along the banks 
of the river, its most conspicuous adorn- 
ments. But pre-eminent, both for height 
and splendor, is Wat Chang, visible, all 
but its base, from the very mouth of the 
river. Its central spire, full three hun- 
dred feet in height, towers grandly above 
the surrounding turrets and pagodas, the 
white walls gleaming out from the dark 
foliage of the banian, and the feathery 
fringes of the palm reflected on its shin- 
ing roof. 

The two main entrances to the royal 



palace are of white masonry very elab- 
orately adorned. Groups of elegant col- 
umns support a capital composed of 
nine crowns rising one above the other, 
and terminating in a slender spire of 
some forty feet. The whole is inlaid in 
exquisite mosaics of porcelain, the va- 
rious colors arranged in quaint devices, 
so as to produce the happiest effect, 
while the reflection of the sun's rays 
upon the glazed tiles, the numberless 
turrets and pinnacles of the lofty pile, 
and the porticoes and balconies of pure 
white marble opening from every win- 
dow, and leading to delectable conser- 
vatories, luxurious baths or fairy groves 
and arbors, present, as grouped togeth-' 
er, a sight worth a trip across the waters 
to enjoy. The engraving represents one 
of these entrances, and His Majesty 
Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mong- 
kut, the late supreme king of Siam, on 
his return from his usual afternoon prom- 
enade. This "promenade," however, 
was not a walk, a ride or a drive, but an 
airing in one of the royal state barges. 
For the late king, true to the usages of 
his forefathers, continued to the very 
close of his life to make all his tours, 
public and private, with very rare ex- 
ceptions, by water. This has heretofore 
been the custom of all classes, the gen- 
tly-flowing Meinam being the Broadway 
of Bangkok, and canals, intersecting the 
city in every direction, its cross streets. 
Every family keeps one or more boats 
and a full complement of rowers ; pal- 
aces and temples have their gates on 
the river ; and upon its placid waters 
move in ever-varying panorama life's 
shifting scenes of weddings and funerals, 
business and pleasure, from early morn 
till long past midnight. Only since the 
accession of the present kings have 
streets been constructed along the river- 
banks ; and these young princes, as a 
sort of concession to European customs, 
now take occasional drives in open car- 



142 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 




illtllllllllll lliliii-^^n uiMii u» rill 1 1 JlliTriHlyljlllllIll ullhUflll II* 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



143 



riages, attended by liveried servants, 
though for state processions boats are 
still in vogue. His Majesty the late king 
was ordinarily conveyed to the jetty in 
a state palanquin, and handed from it 



into his boat, without the sole of his boot 
ever touching the ground. This has 
been the custom of Siamese monarchs 
from time immemorial, but I have some- 
times seen both the late kings wave 




ELEPHANT ARMED FOR WAR. 



.aside their bearers and jump with agile 
dexterity into their boats, as if it were a 
relief to them to lay aside courtly eti- 
quette and act like ordinary mortals. 
The royal palanquins are completely cov- 



ered with plates of pure gold inlaid with 
pearls, and the cushions are of velvet 
embroidered, and edged with heavy gold 
lace. They are borne by sixteen men 
robed in azure silk saranes and shirts of 



144 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



embroidered muslin. The umbrella is 
of blue, crimson or purple silk, and for 
state occasions is richly embroidered, 
and studded with precious stones. So 
also are those placed over the throne. 



the sofa, or whatever seat the king hap- 
pens to occupy. 

The late supreme king, who died in 
1868 at the age of sixty-five, was tall and 
slender in person, of intellectual coun- 




tenance and noble, commanding pres- 
ence. His ordinary dress was of heavy, 
dark silk, richly embroidered, with the 
occasional addition of a military coat. 
He wore also the decorations of several 
orders, and a crown — not the large one. 



which is worn but once in a lifetime, and 
that on the coronation-day — but the one 
for regular use, which is of fine gold, 
conical in shape and the rim completely 
surrounded by a circlet of magnificent 
diamonds. This prince, the most illus- 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



U5 



trious of all the kings of Siam, spent 
many of the best years of his life in the 
priesthood as high priest of the kingdom. 
He was a profound scholar, not only in 



Oriental lore, but in many European 
tongues and in the sciences. In public 
he was rather reticent, but in the retire- 
ment of the social circle and among his 




FUNERAL PILE FOR THE SECOND KING. 



European friends the real symmetry of 
his noble character was fully displayed, 
winning not only the reverence but the 
warm affection of all who knew him. 
He died universally regretted, and the 
young prince now reigning as supreme 



king is his eldest surviving son : the 
second king is his nephew. 

Among the choice treasures of Siam 
are her elephants, but they belong ex- 
clusively to the Crown, and may be em- 
ployed only at the royal command. 



146 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



They are used in state processions and 
in traveling by the king and members 
of the royal family, and in war at the 
king's mandate only. It is death for a 
Siamese subject, unbidden by his sove- 
reign, to mount one of His Majesty's ele- 
phants. In war they are considered very 
effective, their immense size and weight 
alone rendering them exceedingly de- 
structive in trampling down and crush- 
ing foot-soldiejs. The howdah is placed 
well up on the animal's back, and in it 
sits a military officer of high rank, with 
an iron helmet on his head, and above 
him a seven-layered umbrella, as the 
insignia of his royal commission. On 
the croup sits the groom, guiding the 
royal beast with an iron hook, while all 
about the officer are disposed lances, 
javelins, pikes, helmets and other mu- 
nitions of war, which he dispenses as 
they are needed during the progress of 
a battle. I have been told that as many 
as six or seven hundred of these colossal 
creatures are often marched and mar- 
shaled in battle together ; and so per- 
fectly are they trained as to be guided 
and controlled without difficulty, even 
amid the din of firearms and the con- 
flict of contending armies. Sometimes 
on the king's journeys into the interior 
a train of fifty or sixty will be marched 
in perfect order, their stately stepping 
beautiful to behold, but their huge feet 
coming down wi'L a jolt that threatens 
to dislocate every joint of the unfortunate 
rider. 

I have spoken of the gorgeousness of 
the Bangkok temples, but I must not 
forget to mention the colossal statue of 
Booddh that reposes in one of them. It 
is one hundred and seventy feet in length, 
of solid masonry, perfectly covered with 
a plating of pure gold, and rests quite 
naturally upon the right side, the recum- 
bent position indicating the dreamless 
repose the god now enjoys in tiirwana. 
This is supposed to be the largest image 
of Gautama, the fourth Booddh, in ex- 
istence, and it is an object of the pro- 
foundest veneration to every devout 
Booddhist. 

Incremation of the dead is the custom 
in Siam, and while there I was present 



at several royal funerals, each marked 
by more lavish display of costly mag- 
nificence than we Americans ever see 
on this side the water. Shortly after I 
left the country occurred the death of 
the patriotic second king, so well and 
favorably known among us as Prince 
T. Momfanoi, the introducer of square- 
rigged vessels and many other improve- 
ments, and afterward as King Somdet 
Phra Pawarendr Kamesr Maha Waresr. 
The body was embalmed, and lay in 
state for nearly a year before the burn- 
ing took place. The count de Beauvoir 
reached Bangkok just in time to see the 
royal catafalque, of which he gives a 
somewhat amusing account. He says : 
"The body, having been thoroughly 
dried by mercury, was so doubled that 
the head and feet came together, and 
after being tied up like a sausage was 
deposited in a golden urn on the top of 
the mausoleum." He speaks of the 
state officers in attendance by day and 
by night, and the dead king, from the 
golden urn on the very summit of the 
altar, holding his court with the same 
pomp and parade as during his life. 
A more affecting ceremony is the com- 
ing at noon and eve of the crowds of 
beautiful women, not yet absolved from 
their wifely vows, to converse with their 
loved and lamented lord, and the de- 
positing of letters and petitions in the 
great golden basket at the foot of the 
mausoleum, with the confident expecta- 
tion that these loving missives will reach 
the deceased and be answered by him. 
These royal catafalques are costly and 
magnificent, being covered with plates 
of gold, while the silks and perfumes 
consumed with a single body cost thou- 
sands of dollars. 

M. de Beauvoir describes an interview 
with the king, surrounded by ten of his 
offspring, including the seventy-second 
child. I well remember the eldest son, 
the present supreme king, now in his 
twentieth year, looking when five years 
old the exact counterpart of this one — 
his graceful little figure, dimpled cheeks, 
eyes lustrous as diamonds, and the 
glossy, raven hair, close shaven at the 
back, while the foretop was coiled in a 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 



147 



smooth knot, fastened with jeweled pins 
and twined with fragrant flowers. The 
dress was very simple — only two gar- 
ments of silk or embroidered muslin — 
but the deficiency was more than made 



up by jewelry, of which, in the form of 
chains, rings, anklets and bracelets, he 
wore almost incredible quantities, while 
his golden girdle was studded with costly 
diamonds. 




Polygamy prevails in its fullest extent 
in Siam, especially among those of noble 
or royal lineage ; and the higher the 
rank the larger the number of wives, 
those of the supreme king amounting 



ordinarily to five or six hundred. Of 
these, the "superior wife" holds the 
rank of queen : she resides within the 
harem proper, where are the private 
apartments of the king, and her children 



148 



SKETCHES OF EASTERN TRAVEL. 




ENTRANCE TO THE ROYAL HAREM. 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



149 



are always the legal heirs. For the other 
wives or concubines, their children and 
attendants, there is a whole circle of 
buildings, connected by balconies with 
the palace royal. All these are hand- 
somely fitted up, but what is called "the 
harem " pre-eminently is more gorgeous 
than our dreams of fairy palaces or en- 
chanted castles of genii. Long suites of 
apartments with frescoed walls, ceihngs 
of gold and pearl, floors inlaid with ex- 
quisite mosaics of silver and ebony, and 
with hangings of costly lace, velvet and 
satin, huge waxen candles, and lamps 
fed with perfumed oil that are never suf- 
fered to expire, mirrors, pictures, and 
statuettes innumerable, with cups, basins, 
and even spittoons, of pure gold, — all 
these are but a tithe of the lavish adorn- 
ments of this Oriental paradise, where 



birds sing, flowers bloom, and the sounds 
of low sweet music ever greet the ear of 
the favored visitor. The accompanying 
engraving will give some idea of the 
general appearance of the entrance to 
the harem, with its burnished roof of 
green and gold, its graceful turrets and 
mosque-like pinnacles, and its base of 
pure white marble, chaste and elegant. 
But neither language nor pictorial illus- 
tration can convey to the mind any 
adequate realization of its bewildering 
beauty ; and Count de Beauvoir but 
echoes the language of every traveler 
who has visited Bangkok when he de- 
clares, in his recent work, that "its tem- 
ples and palaces are the most splendid 
of even the gorgeous East." 

Fannie R. Feudge. 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



BY GEORGE CHAWORTH MUSTERS. 
I. 



IN April, 1869, chance took me to the 
remote colony of the Falkland Isl- 
ands, with the purpose of taking thence 
a passage to Buenos Ayres to arrange 
some business-matters. During my stay 
in the settlement the coast of Patagonia, 
in the survey of which H. M. S. Nassau 
was then engaged, formed a frequent 
topic of conversation. I had formerly, 
when stationed on the south-east coast 
of America, read with delight Mr. Dar- 
win's work on South America, as well 
as Fitzroy's admirable Narrative of the 
Voyage of the Beagle, and had ever 
since entertained a strong desire to pen- 
etrate, if possible, the little-known in- 



terior of the country. Now, at length, 
a favorable opportunity seemed to have 
arrived for carrying out the cherished 
scheme of traversing the country from 
Punta Arenas to the Rio Negro, Valdivia, 
or even to Buenos Ayres. The accounts 
given me of the Tehuelche character 
and of the glorious excitement of the 
chase after the guanaco, graphically de- 
scribed by a seaman, Sam Bonner, who 
had been much on the coast and had 
resided at the Santa Cruz station, made 
me more than ever anxious to prosecute 
this plan ; and, having a tolerable ac- 
quaintance with Spanish, which lan- 
guage many of the Indians know well, 



15° 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



it seemed to me possible to safely trav- 
erse the country in company with some 
pne or other of their wandering parties. 
Accordingly, I bestirred myself to ob- 
tain information as to the best way of 
getting such an introduction to the In- 
dians as would probably secure their 
consent ; to which end most material 
assistance was afforded by Mr. Dean of 
Stanley, who kindly provided me with 
letters of introduction to Captain Luiz 
Piedra Buena, an intelligent Argentine 
well known in Stanley, the owner of a 
schooner — in which he worked the seal- 
fisheries on the coast — and also of a 
trading-station at the Middle Island, on 
the Santa Cruz River. 

This settlement consists of only three 
houses, built on an island called " Pa- 
bon," marked as Middle Island, in Islet 
Reach, in Fitzroy's chart. Don Luiz P. 
Buena holds it by virtue of a grant from 
the Argentine government, which has 
also conferred on him the commission 
of captain in the navy, with power to 
prevent all foreign sealers from tres- 
passing on the valuable seal-fisheries on 
the coast. The island is about a mile 
and a half long, and has an average 
breadth of some three hundred and fifty 
yards. Access is obtained from the 
south shore by a ford, about fifty yards 
across, only passable at low water. The 
northern channel is wider and deeper, 
and the swiftness of the current renders 
it impas>able save by a boat, which is 
moored ready to ferry over Indians de- 
sirous of trading, and is also useful for 
bringing wood for fuel, which is not ob- 
tainable on the island. About a hun- 
dred yards from the ford stands the prin- 
cipal house, substantially built of bricks, 
with tiied roof, containing three rooms, 
and a sort of porch to shelter a nine- 
pounder commanding the entrance. It 
is further defended by a stockade, over 
which floats the Argentine flag, and be- 
yond it a fosse, which is filled with water 
by the spring tides. The object of these 
fortifications is to afford protection in 
case of the Indians proving troublesome 
when under the influence of rum. A 
second house was situated about fifty 
yards off, and being generally used as a 



store, bore the name of the Almacen . 
at this time being empty, one room served 
as a sleeping-place for some of the men, 
and the other had been given up for the 
accommodation of Casimiro — an Indian 
of whom both the missionaries and Her 
Majesty's surveyors have made frequent 
mention — and his family. A third house, 
which stood at the eastern end of the 
island, was unoccupied. Near it a small 
plot had been tilled, and potatoes, tur- 
nips and other vegetables had been suc- 
cessfully raised. As the lower part of 
the island is liable to be overflowed at 
high springs, a ditch had been cut across^ 
to drain off the water, and there was 
consequently no lack of irrigation. The 
ground was covered with stunted bushes, 
the small spike-thorn round thistle and 
coarse grass. The few sheep appeared 
to thrive well, but decreased very sensi- 
bly in number during the winter, as on 
days when game was scarce one fell a 
victim to the ravenous appetite engen- 
dered by the keen air of Patagonia. A 
numerous troop of horses grazed on the 
mainland, in a tract below the Southern 
Barranca, called the "Potrero," where 
the grass, though coarse, grew in rank 
luxuriance. When wanted for hunting, 
the entire stud was brought across the 
river in the morning and driven into the 
corral, but ordinarily one alone was kept 
on the island ready for emergencies. 

With Don Luiz P. Buena and his ami- 
able and accomplished senora I subse- 
quently made acquaintance which ripen- 
ed into friendship, but, though his guest, 
I was at present personally unknown to 
him. In his absence, his representative, 
Mr. Clarke, whom I had known some 
years previously in the Falklands, did 
all he could to make me feel at home. 
He was a handsome young fellow of 
twenty-five, and an excellent specimen 
of the versatile and cosmopolitan New 
Englander, "raised" in Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, where he had been brought up 
as a builder, though he afterward "ship- 
ped himself on board of a ship." In 
his nautical life he had been mate of the 
Snow Squall, in a homeward voyage 
from Shanghai, when she was chased 
off the Cape of Good Hope by the Ala- 



AT HOME WITH THE TATAGONIANS. 



151 



bama, and but for the pluck of the cap- I powers of the craft, another item would 
tain and crew, and the wonderful sailing: bave been added to Mr. Adams' "little 






Miiiiii 11 




bill." As it was, the beautiful vessel I steadiness of the crew, and their well 
fairly outsailed the swift steamer. The I deserved attachment to the captain, were 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



most strongly proved on this occasion. 
As there was no alternative between put- 
ting in for water at St. Helena — where 
it was too probable the Alabama would 
pounce upon the prize — and running 
home upon half a pint per diem each 
man, the captain left it to the crew to 
decide, and they chose the latter course. 
'Mr. Clarke had spent three months 
traveling and hunting in company with 
the Tehuelches, which had made him a 
most expert hand with lasso or bolas, 
and well acquainted with the Indian 
character; and it was pleasant to hear 
that he entertained a very high opinion 
of their intelligence and generous dis- 
position. He treated them with fairness 
and considerate kindness, and they re- 
paid him by confidence and friendship. 
Five other employes made up the rest 
of our party. No social distinctions, 
however, prevailed, and the inhabitants 
of Pabon lived in pleasant equality. 
The charge of the dogs and horses and 
the duty of supplying meat devolved on 
two — Gonzalez, a gaucho, a native of 
Patagones, who was as much at home 
in the schooner on a sealing-excursion 
as in the saddle balling an ostrich ; and 
Juan Isidoro, a swarthy little man whose 
sparkling black eyes told of his Indian 
blood, a native of Santiago del Estero : 
he had been sent as a soldier to Rio 
Negro, whence he had managed to de- 
sert, and make his way with Orkeke's 
Indians to the settlement. Next comes 
Juan Chilenb, a bright, fresh-complex- 
ioned youth of nineteen years, to look 
at whom was refreshing after the swarthy 
and weather-beaten physiognomies of 
the others. Then Antonio, a Portuguese, 
by turns gaucho, whaler or sealer, al- 
ways ready with a song or a merry jest, 
and on occasion equally quick with his 
knife. Holstein furnished the last, but 
by no means least important — a strong- 
built, good-natured, rather stupid fellow, 
generally selected as the butt of the rest, 
who always styled him "El Cooke," a 
sobriquet earned by his many voyages 
in that capacity on board various ships. 
Such were the companions of my resi- 
dence at Pabon, besides whom more 
than a score of dogs of all sorts slept 



anyhow and anywhere, and followed 
anybody, giving their masters the pref- 
erence. 

Every Sunday all hands, except one 
— the cook of the week — left on guard, 
went hunting, and, as occasion required, 
during the week, the gauchos would pro- 
ceed to supply the larder with guanaco 
or ostrich, the latter being, however, rare. 
Idleness was unknown : when not hunt- 
ing, woodcutting or salt-raising, manu- 
factures were the order of the day. We 
picked stones and worked them round 
for bolas, and covered them with the 
hide stripped from the hock of the gua- 
naco, the soga or thong connecting the 
balls being made from the skin of the 
neck, the method of obtaining it being 
as follows : The head having been cut 
off, and an incision made just above the 
shoulder, the skin is dragged off in one 
piece, and, after the wool has been pick- 
ed off, is softened by hand and carefully 
cut into strips, which are closely plaited. 
Of this leather we also made serviceable 
bridles, lassos, stirrup-leathers, and, in 
fact, horse-gear generally. Sometimes 
we would have a fit of making pipes, 
and all hands would be busy sawing out 
wood or hard at work boring the bowls ; 
at others, spurs were the rage, made by 
the simple Indian method of sticking 
sharpened nails into two pieces of wood, 
secured together by thongs fastened un- 
der the foot and round the leg ; or again, 
we would work silver, and come out with 
our knife-sheaths glittering with studs. 
On non-hunting days 1 invariably prac- 
ticed the use of the bolas, and caught 
almost every shrub on the island. 

The evenings were passed in play- 
ing the American game of "brag." 
Cash being unknown, and no one being 
disposed to risk the loss of his gear, the 
stakes were simply so many black beans 
to a box of matches ; and as much ex- 
citement prevailed as if each bean or 
perota had been a five-dollar piece. 

The sketch of our life at Pabon would 
be very incomplete without asking the 
reader to accompany us on a hunting- 
excursion. Game had become very 
scarce in our immediate vicinity, and 
our only farinaceous food was black 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



15: 



beans varied by maize, which was too j much used. The meat went woiukrful- 
troublesome in the preparation to be I ly quick, so we determined to extend the 




sphere of the hundng a litile more afield, j daylight the horses were brought up, 
Accordingly, one fine frosty morning at ' caught and saddled, mantles and spurs 



154 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



donned, and eight of us, including two 
Indians, Casimiro and El Zurdo, set off 
to make a circle — /. e., enclose and drive 
an area of land on the southern shore 
of the river, finishing at the Missionaries' 
Valley. Casimiro and Gonzalez accord- 
ingly started, and the remainder follow- 
ed in turn. During our drive down, one 
guanaco was captured by El Zurdo and 
Isidoro, and on our arrival near the val- 
ley of Los Misionarios I chased a gua- 
naco, but, being without dogs and a tyro 
with the bolas, failed to capture him. 
However, on rejoining my companions, 
who had now finished the circle, I found 
that they had only killed one ostrich, 
which, through the carelessness of some 
of the party, the dogs had mauled to 
such an extent as to render the greater 
part of the meat unserviceable. The 
day had been unusually warm, without 
any wind. Though a bank of white 
clouds on the horizon seemed to threaten 
snow, it was agreed to camp out and try 
our chance of getting a good supply of 
meat on the following day ; so we pro- 
ceeded to a sheltered place in the valley 
and bivouacked under the lee of a big 
incense bush, while the horses were turn- 
ed loose and a fire was made, on which 
the remains of the ostrich were soon 
cooking under the master hand of Casi- 
miro. After supper, which was rather 
stinted in quantity, we smoked a pipe, 
and lay down to sleep. About three I 
woke up, feeling, as I thought, a heavy 
weight pressing on my mantle, and found 
that above two inches of snow had fallen 
and that it was still snowing. At day- 
light it came on to rain, but quickly 
changed to snow again ; so we made 
a fire and waited for an hour to see if 
the weather would clear. At last, on a 
gleam of sickly sunshine appearing, we 
proceeded to arrange the circle, Casimi- 
ro starting first. Emerging from the val- 
ley and ascending to the high pampa, 
we met a terrific gale of wind from the 
south, driving before it small snow in 
freezing blasts ; but two ostriches jump- 
ed up from behind a bush, and Mr. 
Clarke balled one of them with great 
dexterity. This was very cheering, as 
we were all very hungry. But, as it was 



impossible to face the driving sleet and 
wind, which prevented us from seeing 
.ten yards before us, we adjourned to the 
valley, leaving Casim.iro, who was not 
visible, to his own pursuits. Suddenly, 
El Zurdo discovered smoke behind a 
clump of trees, and, to our great delight, 
there was our friend before a good fire, 
nicely sheltered from snow and wind, 
within an arbor neatly cut out of a 
bush. We adjourned to the fire an(J 
had breakfast ; invigorated by which, 
and encouraged by a lull in the storm, 
we started off to renew the chase, but 
soon got separated by the thick snow- 
storm. Mr. Clarke, El Zurdo, Gonzalez 
and myself, who were together, came 
close upon a herd of guanaco making 
for the coast to escape the gale. The 
dogs gave chase and killed some, others 
were balled : in fact, a regular slaughter 
took place, and eight or ten carcases 
were soon lying on the plain. Now 
came the tedious job of cutting up. I 
found myself standing alone by a dead 
guanaco, none of the others being visi- 
ble, though not fifty yards distant. I 
proceeded as best I could to arrange the 
meat, and was about half through the 
task, with fingers nearly frozen, when 
I discovered Mr. Clarke and El Zurdo, 
and shortly after it cleared up, and the 
remainder of our party, all loaded with 
meat, arrived. Thus supplied, we turn- 
ed our faces homeward, and a little be- 
fore sundown reached Santa Cruz, where 
a steaming kettle of coffee soon dispelled 
our cold and put us into good spirits. 

The northern hills abounded with 
puma, some of which, killed in our 
hunts, were of unusual size, measuring 
fully six feet, exclusive of the tail, which 
is generally half the length of the body. 
They are, of course, most numerous 
where the herds of guanaco and the 
ostriches abound : in the southern part 
of Patagonia their color is more of a 
grayish-brown than that of the species 
found in the Argentine provinces. These 
"leones," as they are universally called 
in South America, always appeared to 
me to be the most catlike of all the 
felidfe. They are very timid, always 
running from a man on horseback, and, 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



155 



by day at least, from a pedestrian : they 
run for a short distance in a series of 
long bounds at great speed, but soon 
tire, and stand at bay behind or in the 
midst of a bush, and, sitting upon their 
haunches, spit and swear just like a 
monstrous tabby, sometimes endeavor- 
ing to scratch with their formidable 
claws, but rarely springing at the pur- 
suer. Mr. Clarke on one occasion had 
his mantle torn off in this manner. At 
another time, when hunting in the vicin- 
ity of Santa Cruz, I observed from a dis- 
tance Gonzalez hacking with his knife at 
a big incense bush, and on reaching the 
spot found him occupied in clearing 
away branches to allow him to knock a 
huge puma on the head with his bolas. 
He was dismounted and attended by his 
dogs, which bayed the animal. Still, 
had the puma not been a cur, he could 
doubtless have sprung out and killed or 
severely wounded the gaucho. The In- 
dians affirm that the puma will attack a 
single man alone and on foot ; and in- 
deed subsequently an example of this 
came under my notice : however, if a 
person should be benighted or lost, he 
has only to take the precaution of light- 
ing a fire, which these animals will never 
approach. They are most savage in the 
early part of the spring or breeding-sea- 
son, when, according to my experience, 
they are found roaming over the country 
in an unsettled manner : they are then 
also thinner than at other times, but, like 
the wild horse, they are generally pretty 
fat at all times of the year. The females 
I saw were sometimes accompanied by 
two cubs, but never more. The meat 
of the puma resembles pork, and is good 
eating, though better boiled than roasted, 
but one or two Indians of my acquaint- 
ance would not touch the meat. The 
hide is useful either for saddle-cloths or 
to make mantles of; and owing to its 
greasy nature it can be softened with less 
trouble than that of the guanaco. In 
Santa Cruz one of the men had a pair 
of trousers made of lion's skin, which, 
worn with the hair side out, was imper- 
vious to wet. From the hock and lower 
part of the hind legs boots may be 
constructed similar to those made from 



horse hide, and are in common use 
amongst the Indians and also the gau- 
chos of Plata. These, however, are 
only made from pumas of large size, 
and they wear out very quickly. To 
kill a puma with a gun is rather a diffi- 
cult matter, as, unless the ball enters his 
skull or strikes near the region of the 
heart, he has as many lives as his relation 
the cat. I once put three revolver bul- 
lets into one, and ultimately had recourse 
to the bolas as a more effective weapon. 
When wounded they become very sav- 
age, but they are at all times bad cus- 
tomers for dogs, which they maul in a 
shocking manner. The Indian dogs are 
trained to stand off and bay them, keep- 
ing out of range of the claws ; neverthe- 
less, they not unfrequently get killed. 
Perhaps the simplest way of taking the 
pumas is to throw a lasso over them, as 
directly they feel the noose they lie down 
as if dead, and are easily despatched. I 
was particularly struck, as are all hunt- 
ers, with their eyes — large, brown and 
beautifully bright, but with a fierce glare 
that does not appeal to any feelings of 
compassion. I shall never forget the 
expression in the eyes of one puma, best 
described by the remark made by one 
of the Indians as he reined back his 
horse, expecting a spring : " Mira los 
ojos del diablo !" (" Look, what devil's 
eyes!") 

By this time even the kind compan- 
ionship of Mr. Clarke failed to reconcile 
me to the tedious monotony of our life. 
The game also became scarcer and 
scarcer, and at the beginning of August 
I began to think it would be better and 
more amusing to migrate to the Indian 
camp, where, at any rate, plenty of meat 
was procurable. Accordingly, when the 
Indians came over again on a visit, I 
bought a horse, or rather changed away 
a revolver for one (a three-year old, 
newly-broken), and started in company 
with Orkeke, Campan, Cayuke and 
Tankelow, four Indians, all of whom 
were previous acquaintances. I was 
ushered into Orkeke's toldo with due 
ceremony, and we took our seats by the 
fire. I had brought a bag of coffee with 
me ; so we set to work and roasted 



156 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



some, after which one of the Chilians 
was given the task of pounding it be- 
tween stones, and we all drank what the 
Indians not inappropriately term "pot- 
water." Many Indians crowded in to 
have a look at us, and among others 
that I noticed was a remarkably pretty 
little girl of about thirteen years of age, 
a niece of Orkeke's, who took some 
coffee, when offered, in a shy and bash- 
ful manner which was delightful to con- 
template. In due time we all retired to 
rest, and a little before daylight I was 
woke up by the melodious singing of an 
Indian in the next toldo. Shortly after- 
ward, Orkeke went out and harangued 
the inmates of the remaining toldos, and 
presently the horses were brought up, 
and most of the men started for the 
chase. Snow had fallen during the 
night, a biting cold wind was blowing, 
and Orkeke told me there were very few 
animals about. I took this as a hint not 
to ask for a horse, so contented myself 
with sauntering round and examining 
the encampment. Some of the men 
were playing cards, one or two sleeping, 
whilst the women were almost univer- 
sally employed in sewing guanaco man- 
tles. About 3 p. M., Casimiro arrived 
with his family, and proceeded to the 
tent of a southern Indian, named Crime, 
and shortly afterward the hunting-party 
returned by twos and threes, but the 
chase had not been attended with much 
success. We passed the evening pleas- 
antly enough, making acquaintance with 
each other, and Keoken, the little girl, 
instructed me in the Indian names of 
the various objects about the place. 

The most important among the In- 
dians were Orkeke, the actual cacique, 
and his brother Tankelow, who possess- 
ed the greater number of horses ; Casi- 
miro, whose leadership was still rather 
in posse ; Camillo, Crime, Cuastro, Ca- 
yuke, etc. One more must be mention- 
ed by name — Waki, a perfect Hercules 
in bodily frame, and a thoroughly good- 
natured fellow, with whom I became 
great friends. The whole were housed 
in five toldos — by which Spanish name 
the Indian kau or tents, strongly resem- 
bling those of our own gypsies, are 



known. They were pitched in a shel- 
tered hollow, with their fronts facing the 
east, to avoid the bitter violence of the 
prevalent westerly winds. 

Fitzroy has given an excellent de- 
scription of the toldo, but to those read- 
ers who are unacquainted with it a brief 
sketch will not be unacceptable. A row 
of forked posts about three feet high is 
driven into the ground in a slightly 
slanting position, and a ridge-pole laid 
across them ; in front of these, at a dis- 
tance of about seven feet, a second row, 
six feet high, with a ridge-pole ;' and at 
the same distance from them a third 
row, eight feet high, each slanting a lit- 
tle, but not at the same angle. A cov- 
ering made of from forty to fifty full- 
grown guanaco skins, smeared with a 
mixture of grease and red ochre, is 
drawn over from the rear, and the great 
drag of the heavy covering straightens 
the poles : it is then secured by thongs 
to the front poles, while hide curtains 
fastened between the inner poles parti- 
tion off the sleeping-places, and the bag- 
gage piled round the sides of the tent 
excludes the cold blast which penetrates 
under the edge of the covering. The 
fire is kindled in the fore part or mouth 
of the tent. In very bad weather, or 
when encamped for the winter, an ad- 
ditional covering is secured to the front 
poles and brought down over an extra 
row of short posts, making all snug. It 
is a common arrangement for relatives 
or friends to combine their toldos, when, 
instead of bringing down the coverings 
to the ground at the side, they are made 
to overlap, and thus one tent roof will 
cover two or three distinct domestic 
interiors. 

The furniture of the toldos consists of 
one or two bolsters and a horse hide or 
two to each sleeping compartment, one 
to act as a curtain and the other for bed- 
ding. The bolsters are made of old 
ponchos or lechus, otherwise called man- 
dils — woven blankets obtained from the 
Araucanos, who are famous for their 
manufacture — stuffed with guanaco wool 
and sewn up with ostrich or guanaco 
sinews. The bolsters do duty as pillows 
or as seats, and help to form the women's 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



157 



saddles on the march. Besides these, 
the women all own mandils for their 
beds. The men occasionally use the 
cloths worn under the saddles for seats 
when the ground is damp, but as a rule 
all the inmates of the toldo squat upon 
Nature's carpet, which has the advan- 
tage of being easily cleaned, for the Te- 
huelches are very particular about the 
cleanliness of the interior of their dwell- 
ings, and a patch of sod accidentally 
befouled is at once cut out and thrown 
outside by the women. 

The cooking-utensils are simple, con- 
sisting of an asador, or iron spit, for 
roasting meat, and an occasional iron 
pot, which serves for boiling and also for 
trying-out ostrich grease and marrow, 
which is employed both for cooking and 
for mixing with the paint with which the 
faces of both sexes are adorned. To 
these, wooden platters and armadillo 
shells, to serve broth in, are sometimes 
added. The duty of pitching and ar- 
ranging the toldos on the halt and strik- 
ing them for the march, as well as load- 
ing the poles, covering and furniture on 
the horses, devolves entirely upon the 
women, who display great strength and 
dexterity in the work. 

The order of march and method of 
hunting which constitute the daily rou- 
tine are as follows : The cacique, who 
has the ordering of the marching and 
hunting, comes out of his toldo at day- 
light, sometimes indeed before, and de- 
livers a loud oration, describing the order 
of march, the appointed place of hunt- 
ing and the general programme : he then 
exhorts the young men to catch and 
bring up the horses and be alert and 
active in the hunt, enforcing his admo- 
nition, by way of a wind-up, with a 
boastful relation of his own deeds of 
prowess when he was young. Some- 
times the women while the chief is ha- 
ranguing rekindle or blow up the embers 
of the fire and prepare a slight breakfast, 
but not invariably. Some cold meat is 
also occasionally reserved from the even- 
ing meal, and placed in a hide bag to be 
carried with them on the march, to be 
given to the children when they are 
hungry. But the general custom for the 



men is to wait until the day's hunt has 
supplied fresh meat. When the cacique's 
"oration " — which is very little attended 
to — is over, the young men and boys 
lasso and bring up the horses, and the 
women place on their backs the bolsters 
of reeds, tied with hide thongs, mantles 
and colored blankets, which form their 
saddles ; others are strapping their belts 
on, or putting their babies into wicker- 
work cradles, or rolhng up the skins that 
form the coverings of the toldos, and 
placing them and the poles on the bag- 
gage-horses ; last of all, the small break- 
ers which are carried on the march are 
filled with water. The women mount 
by means of a sling round the horses' 
necks, and sit astride of their bolster- 
saddles ; their babies — if they possess 
any — and their pet dogs are hoisted up, 
the babies being stowed in the cradles 
behind them : then they take their bag- 
gage-horses in tow and start off in single 
file. The men, who generally wait until 
all are ready, then drive the spare horses 
for a short distance, and having handed 
them over to the charge of rheir wives 
or daughters, retire to a neighboring 
bush, where a fire is kindled, pipes are 
lighted, and the hunt commenced in the 
following inanner : Two men start off 
and ride at a gallop round a certain area 
of country, varying according to the 
number of the patty, lighting fires at 
intervals to mark their track. After the 
lapse of a few minutes two others are 
despatched, and so on until only a few 
are left with the cacique. These spread 
themselves out in at crescent, closing in 
and narrowing the circle on a point 
where those first started have by this 
time arrived. The crescent rests on a 
base-line formed by the slowly-proceed- 
ing line of women, children and bag- 
gage-horses. The ostriches and herds 
of guanaco run from the advancing 
party, but are checked by the points- 
men, and when the circle is well closed 
in are attacked with the bolas, two men 
frequently chasing the same animal from 
different sides. The dogs also assist in 
the chase, but the Indians are so quick 
and expert with the bolas that unless 
their horses are tired, or they happen to 



i5« 



AT no ME WITH THE PA TAG ONI A AS. 



have gambled away their bolas, the dogs I very frequently found in the circles, and 
are not much called into use. Puma are | quickly despatched by a blow on the 




head from a ball. On one occasion I I blow, the skull of an unusually large 
saw Waki completely crush, by a single I one. The Indian law of division of the 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



'59 



game prevents all disputes, and is as 
follows : The man who balls the ostrich 
leaves it for the other who has been 
chasing with him to carry or take charge 
of, and at the end of the hunt it is di- 
vided — the feathers and body from the 
head to the breast-bone and one leg be- 
longing to the captor, the remainder to 
the assistant. In the case of guanaco, 
the first takes the best half in the same 
manner : the lungs, heart, liver, kidneys 
and the fat and marrow bones are some- 
times eaten raw. The Tehuelches also 
cut out the fat over the eyes, and the 
gristly fat between the thigh-joints, which 
they eat with great gusto, as also the 
heart and blood of the ostrich. Owing 
to the entire absence of farinaceous food, 
fat becomes a necessary article of diet, 
and can be consumed in much larger 
quantities than in more civilized coun- 
tries. That this is not merely owing to the 
inclemency of the climate is proved by 
the appetite for fat which the gauchos in 
the Argentine provinces acquire. When 
the hunt is finished and the birds cut up 
and divided, fires are kindled, and whilst 
stones are heating the ostrich is plucked, 
the wing-feathers being carefully tied to- 
gether with a piece of sinew. The bird 
is then laid on its back and drawn ; the 
legs are carefully skinned down, and the 
bone taken out, leaving the skin ; the 
carcase is then separated into two halves, 
and the back-bone having been extract- 
ed from the lower half, and the meat 
sliced so as to admit the heated stones 
laid in between the sections, it is tied up 
like a bag, secui-ed by the skin of the 
legs, with a small bone thrust through 
to keep all taut : this is placed on the 
live embers of the fire, a light blaze being 
kindled when it is nearly done to per- 
fectly roast the outside meat. During 
the process of cooking it has to be turn- 
ed frequently to ensure all parts being 



thoroughly cooked. When ready it is 
taken off the fire, and the top part being 
cut off and the stones extracted, the 
broth and meat are found deliciously 
cooked. The party, generally consist- 
ing of twos or fours, sit round the dish 
and eat the meat, sopping it in the broth. 
The back part, which consists nearly 
altogether of fat (when the ostrich is in 
good condition), is then divided, pieces 
being given to each and reserved as tid- 
bits for the women and children. When 
the head and breast half are to be cook- 
ed, the bone is not extracted, but the 
wings turned inside and the breast cav- 
ity filled with heated stones, and tied up 
with half of the skin of the legs, which 
have been divided, additional pieces of 
meat from the legs having been placed 
in the breast cavity. The fat of the 
breast is divided amongst the party at 
the fireside, the owner in all cases re- 
serving none or a very small piece for 
himself, as the others who are cookmg 
at the same fire are sure to give him 
plenty. The cacique generally receives 
the largest share, or, if he is not present, 
the greatest friends of the owner. The 
wing-feathers are carefully taken to the 
toldos and stored with others for future 
trade. The ostrich is most thoroughly 
eaten, thc^izzard, which is large enough 
to fill both hands, being carefully cook- 
ed by the insertion^ of a hot stone and 
roasted : the eyes, too, are sucked, and 
the tripe devoured ; but when the birds 
are thin they are simply skinned, and 
the carcase left to the pumas. After the 
meal concluding the hunt is finished, a 
pipe is handed round, saddles are re- 
adjusted and the game placed on them, 
and the party adjourn to the toldos, 
which by this time have been pitched 
and arranged by the women. 

(end op faht first.) 



i6o 



AT HOAIE WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANh;. 

BY GEORGE CHAWORTH MUSTERS. 
II. 



THE hills on the northern side of the 
valley of the Rio Chico are bare 
and rugged, rising abruptly out of irreg- 
ular forms, while the southern heights 
are lower, and present more of the steep 
declivities known as barrancas, inter- 
rupted at intervals by high, rugged hills 
of basalt, often assuming the appearance 
of ruined castles, closing in at the bends 
of the winding river. To one of these — 
a remarkable hill under which we were 
encamped on August 23, about one hun- 
dred and twenty miles from Santa Cruz — 
I gave the name of Sierra Ventana, from 
a window-like opening through its peak : 
the Indians called it Mowaish. In many 
places the bases of these hills are form- 
ed entirely of a description of lava ; and 
one of the Chilians informed me that 
whilst passing over a ridge he had ob- 
served several large masses of pure iron : 
this, however, I was inclined to disbe- 
lieve, as, although farther up the coun- 
try iron-ore exists in large quantities, I 
only observed in this part a species of 
ore similar to that common at Drobak 
in Norway. 

During the expedition up the Rio Chico 
I had an opportunity of witnessing the 
ceremonies with which the attainment 
of the age of puberty of one of the girls 
was celebrated according to custom. 
Early in the morning the father of the 
child informed the cacique of the event : 
the cacique thereupon officially commu- 
nicated the intelligence to the acting 
doctor or medicine-man, and a consider- 
able shouting was set up, while the doc- 
tor adorned himself with white paint and 
was bled in the forehead and arms with 
a sharp bodkin. The women immedi- 
ately set to work to sew a number of 
mandils together. When the patchwork 
was finished, it was taken with pomp 
and ceremony by a band of young men, 
\\ ho marched round the poles — already 



fixed to form a temporary toldo — sing- 
ing, whilst the women joined in with the 
most dismal incantations and bowlings. 
After marching round several times, the 
covering was drawn over the poles, and 
lances were stuck in front adorned with 
bells, streamers and brass plates that 
shook and rattled in the breeze, the 
whole thing when erected presenting a 
very gay appearance (its Indian name 
literally meaning "The pretty house "). 
Tht jirl was then placed in an inner 
part of the tent, where nobody was ad- 
mitted. After this everybody mounted, 
and some were selected to bring up the 
horses, out of which certain mares and 
fillies were chosen and brought up in 
front of the showy toldo, where they 
were knocked on the head by a ball, 
thus saving the blood (which was se- 
cured in pots) to be cooked, being con- 
sidered a great delicacy. It is a rule 
amongst the Indians that any one assist- 
ing to take off the hide of a slaughtered 
mare is entitled to a piece of meat, but 
the flesh was on this occasion distributed 
pretty equally all round. Whilst the 
meat was cooking, Casimiro, who was 
ruler of the feast, sent a message for me 
to come to Crime's toldo, where I found 
him busy working at a saddle, in the 
construction- of which he was, by the 
way, an adept. His wife had a large 
iron pot bubbling on the fire, containing 
some of the blood mixed with grease. 
When the mess was nearly cooked, we 
added a little pepper and salt and cofh- 
menced the feast. Previous to this I 
had felt a sort of repugnance to eating 
horse, as perhaps most Englishmen — 
except, indeed, the professed hippoph- 
agists — have ; but hunger overcame all 
scruples, and I soon acquired quite a 
taste for this meat. Casimiro informed 
me, after the meal was concluded, that 
thei'e v/ould be a dance in the evenins:. 



AT HOME Wirii THE PATAGONIANS. 



i6i 



\ looked forward with great anticipation I saw some of the women proceed to col- 
to this "small and early,'" and shortly | lect a considerable quantity of firewood, 



1/ \^y^\\ iiiiiiiiiii i||ii iifp^^^^^^^^ 

1 




which was placed outside the tent. Pres- I outside the sacred precincts. The wo- 
eritly, toward dusk, a fire was made, first ! men all sat down on the grass round 



l62 



^i///OME IVITFI THE rATAGONlAXS. 



about, but at some distance from the I except four and the musicians. The or- 
men, who were all seated on the grass, | chestra consisted of a drum made by 




stretching a piece of hide over a bowl, I of the thigh-bone of a guanaco, with 
filso a sort of wind instrument formed holes bored in it. which is placed to the 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



163 



r louth and played, or with a short bow 
having a horsehair string. When all 
was ready, some of the old hags all the 
time singing in their melodious way, the 
band struck up, and four Indians, muf- 
fled up in blankets so that their eyes 
only were visible, and their heads adorn- 
ed with ostrich plumes, marched into 
the ring and commenced pacing slowly 
round the fire, keeping time to the 
music. After two or three promenades 
the time gradually quickened until they 
went at a sort of trot ; and about the 
fifth round, dancing fast to the music, 
they threw away their mantles, and ex- 
hibited themselves adorned with white 
paint daubed all over their bodies, and 
each having a girdle of bells extending 
from the shoulder to the hip, which 
jingled in tune to their steps. The first 
four consisted of the chiefs Casimiro, 
Orkeke, Crime and Camillo, who, after 
dancing with great action (just avoiding 
stepping into the fire), and bowing their 
plumed heads grotesquely on either side 
to the beats of the drum, retired for a 
short time to rest themselves, after which 
they appeared again and danced a dif- 
ferent step. When that was over, four 
more appeared, and so on until every 
one, including the boys, had had a fling. 
Sometimes, to give greater effect, the 
performers carried a bunch of rushes in 
one hand. About 9 p. M., everybody 
having had enough, Casimiro gave the 
sign. The band stopped playing, and 
all retired to bed. The dancing was not 
ungraceful, but was rendered grotesque 
by the absurd motions of the head. It 
was strictly confined to the men, the 
women being only allowed to look on. 

At the beginning of November we fell 
in with a party of northern Indians, 
under a chief named Hinchel, on which 
occasion the ceremonial of welcome was 
duly observed. Both parties, fully arm- 
ed, dressed in their best and mounted on 
their best horses, formed into opposite 
lines. The northern Indians presented 
the gayest appearance, displaying flan- 
nel shirts, ponchos and a great show 
of silver spurs and ornamental bridles. 
The chiefs then rode up and down, dress- 
ing the ranks and haranguing their men, 



who kept up a continual shouting of 
"Wap, Wap, Wap." I fell in as a full 
private, though Casimiro had vainly 
endeavored to induce me to act as " Cap- 
itanejo" or officer of a party. The Bue- 
nos Ayrean colors were proudly display- 
ed on our side, while the Northerns car- 
ried a white weft, their ranks presenting 
a much better drilled aspect than our 
ill -disciplined forces. Messengers or 
hostages were then exchanged, each side 
deputing a son or brother of the chief 
for that purpose ; and the new-comers 
advanced, forined into columns of threes 
and rode round our ranks, firing their 
guns and revolvers, shouting and brand- 
ishing their swords and bolas. After 
galloping round at full speed two or three 
times, they opened ranks and charged 
out as if attacking an enemy, shouting 
" Koue " at every blow or thrust. The 
object of attack was supposed to be the 
" Gualichu " or demon, and certainly the 
Demon of Discord had need to be ex- 
orcised. Hinchel's party then halted 
and reformed their line, while we, in our 
turn, executed the same manoeuvres. 
Afterward the caciques advanced and 
formally shook ha:nds, making, each in 
turn, long an.d complimentary speeches. 
This was repeated several times, the 
etiquette being to answer only " Ahon " 
or Yes until the third repetition, when 
all begin to talk, and formality is gradu- 
ally laid aside. It was rather a surprise 
to find etiquette so rigorously insisted 
on, but these so-called savages are as 
punctilious in observing the proper forms 
as if they were Spanish courtiers. 

Guanaco-hunting having proved a fail- 
ure, Orkeke, to my great delight, pro- 
posed a visit to the wild-cattle country. 
The camp was accordingly struck, and 
following more or less the valley of the 
river, which flowed after one turn nearly 
due east, we shortly came out into an. 
open plain running up between the 
mountains, at the head of which we en- 
camped by some tall beeches on the 
bank of the stream. The whole of the 
latter part of the plain traversed was 
literally carpeted with strawberry plants 
all in blossom, the soil being of a dark, 
peaty nature. Young ostriches were now 



164 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



numerous, and in every hunt some were I tion to our dinner. Tiie children had 
captured and formed a welcome addi- \ several alive as pets, which they used to 




let loose and then catch with miniature I Our programme was to leave all the wo- 
bolas, generally ending in killing them. I men.toldos and other encumbrances \x\ 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



165 



Lnis spot, named "Weekel," or Chay- 
kash — a regular station which Hinchel's 
party had occupied a few weeks previ- 
ously — and proceed into the interior in 
search of cattle. The following morn- 
ing at daylight horses were caught and 
saddled, and, after receiving the good 
wishes of the women, who adjured us 
to bring back plenty of fat beef, we 
started off just as the sun was rising be- 
hind the hills to the eastward. The air 
was most invigorating, and we trotted 
along for some distance up a slightly 
irregular and sandy slope, halting after 
an hour or two by the side of a deli- 
ciously clear brook flowing east, where 
ve smoked. We had previously passed 
guanaco and ostrich, but no notice was 
taken of them, the Indians having larger 
game in view. After passing this brook, 
the head-water of the river near which 
we had left the toldos, we skirted a large 
basin-like plain of beautiful green pas- 
ture, and after galloping for some time 
entered the forest, traveling along a path 
which only permitted us to proceed in 
Indian file. The trees were in many 
places dead — not blackened by fire, but 
standing up like ghostly bleached and 
bare skeletons. It is a remarkable fact 
that all the forests on the eastern side 
are skirted by a belt of dead trees. At 
length, however, just as we came in sight 
of a curiously-pointed rock which in the 
distance resembled the spire of a church, 
we entered the forest of live trees : the 
undergrowth was composed of currant, 
bay and other bushes, whilst here and 
there were beds of yellow violets, and 
the inevitable strawberry plants every- 
where. After crossing a stream which, 
flowing from the north, afterward took a 
westerly course, thus proving that we 
had passed the watershed, we proceeded, 
under cover of a huge rock, to recon- 
noitre the hunting-ground. The scenery 
was beautiful : a valley, about a mile 
wide, stretched directly under us ; on 
the southern verge a silver line marked 
the easterly river, and another on the 
northern tlie'one debouching in the Pa- 
cific ; whilst above, on both sides, rose 
high mountains covered with vegetation 
and almost impenetrable forests. On 



the western side of the valley a solitary 
bull was leisurely taking his breakfast, 
and above our lookout rock a huge con- 
dor lazily flapped his wings. These were 
the only specimens of animal life in view. 
Pursuing our way in perfect silence, as 
from the first entrance into the forests 
speaking had been prohibited, we fol- 
lowed the leader along the narrow cattle- 
path, passing here and there the remains 
of a dead bull or cow that had met its 
fate by the Indians' lasso, and at length 
descended to the plain. It was about 
mid-day and the day was warm, so we 
halted, changed horses, looked to our 
girths, got lassos ready for use, and then 
started on. As we were proceeding we 
observed two or three animals amongst 
the woods on the opposite side^ but, 
knowing that it would be useless to fol- 
low, pursued our course up the valley. 
Having crossed the western stream, we 
at once entered a thicket where the path 
was scarcely distinguishable from the 
cover, but our leader never faltered, ami 
led the way through open glades alter- 
nating with thick woods, on every side 
of which were cattle-marks — many being 
holes stamped out by the bulls — or wal- 
lowing-places. The glades soon termi- 
nated in forests, which seemed to stretch 
unbroken on either side. We had ex- 
pected before reaching this point to find 
cattle in considerable numbers, but the 
warmth of the day had probably driven 
them into the thickets to seek shelter. 
We now commenced to ascend over a 
dangerous path, encumbered here and 
there with loose boulders and entangled 
in dense thickets, whilst we could hear 
and catch occasional glimpses of the 
river foaming down a ravine on our left ; 
and presently arrived at the top of a 
ridge where the forests became more 
uniformly dense, and we could with 
great difficulty pursue our way. It was 
a mystery to me how Orkeke, who acted 
as guide, knew where we were, as on 
one occasion the slightly-marked paths 
diverged in different direcdons, and 
on another we literally found ourselves 
amongst fallen trees in a forest so dense 
that the light of day scarcely penetrated 
its shades. Our leader, however, never 



i66 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



hesitated, but led us onward in all con- 
fidence. Whilst brushing along, if I 
may be allowed the term, trying to keep 
the leader in sight, I heard something 
tapping on a tree, and, looking up, saw 
close above me a most beautifully-fea- 
thered red-crested woodpecker. We at 
length commenced to descend, and, after 
passing many channels of rivulets issu- 
ing from springs, where a slip of the 
horse's foot on the wet and mossy stones 
would have occasioned something worse 
than broken bones, as they were situated 
on the edge of a deep ravine, finally 
emerged from the woods, and found our- 
selves on a hill of some three hundred 
feet in height, whence we looked down 
on a broad plain in the form of a triangle, 
bounded by the river flowing through 
the ravine on the north side, and on the 
southern by another coming from the 
south, which two streams united in one 
large river at the western apex, at a dis- 
tance of about perhaps a league. Above 
and around, on all sides excepting to the 
west and the ravines through which the 
rivers flowed, rose the unbroken wall 
of the lofty mountains of the Cordillera, 
many of their peaks snow-clad. No 
sound was to be heard except the rush- 
ing of the river in the ravine, and no 
animal hfe to be seen except a condor 
or two floating high above us in the clear 
sky. The scene was sublime, and I view- 
ed it in silence for some minutes, till the 
pipe, being. handed to me, dispelled all 
nascent poetic tendencies. The Indians 
remained silent and looked disgusted, as 
a herd of cattle had been expected to be 
viewed on the plain below. We descend- 
ed to the flats and crossed the river, on 
the banks of which "Paja" or pampa- 
grass grew in abundance, as well as the 
bamboo-like canes from which Arau- 
canian Indians make their lance shafts, 
and a plant called by the Chilians 
"Talka," the stalk of which, resembling 
rhubarb, is refreshing and juicy. On 
the northern edges and slope of the ra- 
vine behind us towered graceful pines 
sixty feet high, which, though an im- 
passable barrier of rock prevented close 
inspection, appeared to be a species of 
Araucaria : the bark was imbricated, 



and the stems rose bare of branches Tor 
two-thirds of their height, like those fig- 
ured by M. Gay. Many -had been car- 
ried down by landslips, and lay tossed 
and entangled on the sides of the ra- 
vine. The increase of temperature after 
passing the watershed was sensibly great, 
amounting to from seven to ten degrees, 
and the vegetation far more luxuriant, 
the plants presenting many new forms 
unknown at the eastern side. After 
leaving the plain and crossing the shal- 
low stream, we left our mantles, and 
girthed up near a tree in a thicket fes- 
tooned with a beautiful creeper, having 
a bell-shaped flower of violet radiated 
with brown. The variety of flowers 
made an Eden of this lovely spot : 
climbing clusters of sweet-peas, vetches, 
rich golden flowers resembling gorgeous 
marigolds, and many another blossom, 
filled the air with perfume and delighted 
the eye with their beauty. Proceeding 
still westward, we entered a valley with 
alternate clumps of trees and green pas- 
tures, and after riding about a mile I 
espied from a ridge on one side of the 
valley two bulls on the other side, just 
clear of the thick woods bordering the 
ascent of the mountains. The word 
was passed in whispers to the cacique, 
and, a halt being called under cover of 
some bushes, a plan of attack was ar- 
ranged in the following manner : Two 
men were sent round to endeavor to 
drive the animals to a clearing where it 
would be possible to use the lasso, the 
remainder of the party proceeding down 
toward the open ground with lassos, 
ready to chase if the bulls should come 
that way. For a few minutes we re- 
mained stationary, picking the suaw- 
berries, which in this spot were ripe, 
although the plants previously met with 
were only in flower. At the end of five 
minutes spent in anxiously hoping that 
our plan would prove successful, a yell 
from the other side put us on the alert, 
and we had the gratification to see one 
of the animals coming straight toward 
our cover. Alas ! just as we were pre- 
paring to dash out he turned on the edge 
of the plain, and after charging furious- 
ly at his pursuer, dashed into a thicket, 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIA NS. 



167 



where he stood at bay. We immediately 
closed round him, and, dismounting, I 
advanced on foot to try and bring him 
down with the revolver: just as I had 
got within half a dozen paces of him, 
an", behind a bush was quietly taking 
air, at his shoulder, the Indians, eager 
for beef, and safe on their horses at 
a considerable distance off, shouted, 
" Nearei ! nearer!" I accordingly step- 
ped from my cover, but had hardly 
moved a pace forward when my spur 
caught in a root : at the same moment 
"El Toro " charged. Entangled with 
the root, I could not jump on one side 
as he came on ; so when within a yard 
I fired a shot in his face, hoping to turn 
him, and wheeled my body at the same 
instant to prevent his horns from catch- 
ing me, as the sailors say, "broadside 
on." The shot did not stop him, so I 
was knocked down, and, galloping over 
me, he passed on with my handkerchief, 
which fell from my head, triumphantly 
borne on his horns, and stopped a few 
yards off under another bush. Having 
picked myself up and found my arms 
and legs all right, I gave him another 
shot, which, as my hand was rather 
unsteady, only took effect in the flank. 
My cartridges being exhausted, I return- 
ed to my horse and found that, besides 
being considerably shaken, two of my 
ribs had been broken by the encounter. 
The Indians closed round me, and 
evinced great anxiety to know whether 
I was much hurt. One, more courageous 
than the rest, despite the warnings of the 
cacique, swore that he would try and 
lasso the brute, and accordingly ap- 
proached the infuriated animal, who for 
a moment or two showed no signs of 
stirring : just, however, as the Indian 
was about to throw his lasso it caught 
in a branch, and before he could extri- 
cate it the bull was on him. We saw 
the horse give two or three vicious kicks 
as the bull gored him : at length he was 
lifted clean up, the fore legs alone re- 
maining on the ground, and overthrown, 
the rider alighting on his head in a bush. 
We closed up and attracted the bull in 
another direction, then went to look for 
the corpse of our comrade, who, how- 



ever, to our surprise, issued safe from 
the bush, where he had lain quiet and 
unhurt, though the horse was killed. 

The first question asked about the 
Patagonians by curious English friends 
has invariably had reference to their 
traditionary stature ; Are they giants or 
not ? Whether the ancestors of the Te- 
huelches — to whom alone, by the way, 
the name Patagonians properly applies 
— were taller than the present race is 
uncertain, though tales of gigantic skele- 
tons found in Tehuelche graves are cur- 
rent in Punta Arenas and Santa Cruz. 
The average height of the Tehuelche 
male members of the party with which 
I traveled was rather over than under 
five feet ten inches. Of course no other 
means of measurement be-sides compar- 
ing my own height were available,' but 
this result, noted at the time, coincides 
with that independently arrived at by Mr. 
Cunningham. Two others, who were 
measured carefully by Mr. Clarke, stood. 
six feet four inches each. After joining 
the northern Tehuelches, although the 
Southerners proved generally the tallest, 
I found no reason to alter this average, 
as any smaller men that were met with 
in their company were not pure Te- 
huelches, but half-bred Pampas. The 
extraordinary muscular development of 
the arms and chest is in all particularly 
striking, and as a rule they are well- 
proportioned throughout. This fact calls 
for especial mention, as others have 
stated that the development and strength 
of the legs is inferior to that of the arms. 
Even Mr. Cunningham alleges this to 
be the case, but I cannot at all agree, 
with him. Besides the frequent oppor- 
tunities afforded me of scrutinizing the 
young men engaged in the gaine of ball, 
in which great strength and activity are 
displayed, or when enjoying the almost 
daily bath and swimming or diving, 1 
judged of the muscular size of their legs 
iDy trying on their boots, which in nearly 
all cases were far too large for me, al- 
though the feet, on the other hand, were 
frequently smaller than mine. The 
height of their insteps is also worthy of 
remark, one example of which may suf- 



I 68 



AT J/OA/E WITH 71 IE PATAGONIAAS. 



tire. Having negotiated an exchange I ufactured by Messrs. Thomas, foi some 
of an excellent pair of high boots, man- j necessary article with a Tehuelche, the 



'i^ m ^^!^'f 



■in 












t^ 






/"T/ 



< td 






t J .« Jill winiUP> > ' 'H^ 












'1. — N,' "O^k '^^■7; 

'1 ' n 




K ' ;, - j-«r^',---r"^' ,,lr *y rifc. v^ 



< 1 * 






bargam fell through because he was un- j high-arched instep proving an insuper- 
able to get his foot into the boot, the I able obstacle to farther progress. 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



169 



Their faces, of course, vary in expres- 
sion, but are ordinarily bright and good- 
humored, though when in the settle- 
ments they assume a sober, and even 
sullen, demeanor, Waki and Cayuke, 
two friends of mine, are particularly 
present to my recollection as having 
always had a smile on their faces. 
Their ever-ready laughter displays uni- 
versally good teeth, which they keep 
white and clean by chewing "maki," a 
gum which exudes from " the incense 
bush, and is carefully gathered by the 
women and children. It has a rather 
pleasant taste and is a most excellent 
dentifrice, worthy to rival Odonto or 
Floriline, and it is used simply as such, 
and not, as M. Guinnard says, because 
their greediness is so great that they 
must chew something. Their eyes are 
bright and inteUigent, and their noses — 
though, of course, presenting different 
types — are as a rule aquiline and well- 
formed, and devoid of the breadth of 
nostril proper to the ordinary ideal of 
savage tribes. The peculiar prominence 
over the eyebrows has been noticed by 
all observers, and retreating foreheads, 
though observable, are exceptional. The 
thick masses of hair and the obvious 
risk, which would deter the most zealous 
craniologist from endeavoring to meas- 
ure their heads, must be deemed suf- 
ficient excuse for my not being able to 
state whether they are dolichokephalic 
or brachykephalic — a point, however, 
which I confess did not particularly at- 
tract my observation ; but for the partial 
comfort of anthropologists, be it noted 
that both Chilians and myself inter- 
changed hats with some Tehuelches, 
especially Orkeke and Hinchel, without 
finding misfits. The complexion of the 
men is reddish-brown — that is to say, 
when cleansed from paint, and, like an 
old picture, restored to its pristine tint, 
which is not quite so deep as to warrant 
Fitzroy's comparison of it to the color of 
a Devon cow. 

The scanty natural growth of beard, 
moustaches, and even eyebrows, is care- 
fully eradicated by means of a pair of 
silver tweezers, and I was often urged 
to part with my beard and undergo this 



painful operation, but I naturally object- 
ed to complying with the request. The 
men's heads are covered with thick, 
flowing masses of long hair, of which 
they take great care, making their wives 
or other female relatives brush it out 
carefully at least once a day. Very few 
appeared to have gray hair, though there 
were a few exceptions, one very old 
man's hair being of a snowy whiteness, 
which contrasted strangely with his 
tawny face. The women have, as far 
as I could judge, an average height of 
about five feet six : they are very strong 
in the arms, but seldom walk, beyond 
fetching the supplies of wood and water, 
all their journeys being performed on 
horseback. Their hair, which is of no 
great length, scarcely indeed equaling 
that of the men, and very coarse, is 
worn in two plaited tails, which on gala- 
days are artificially lengthened, prob- 
ably with horsehair interwoven with 
blue beads, the ends being garnished 
with silver pendants. This practice, 
however, is confined, I think, to the un- 
married ladies. 

The young women are frequently 
good-looking, displaying healthy, ruddy 
cheeks when not disguised with paint. 
They are "modest in behavior, though 
very coquettish, and as skilled in flirta- 
tion as if they had been taught in more 
civilized society, appealing as prettily 
for help as a young lady in imaginary 
difficulties over a country stile. Thus^ 
when at Orkeke's request I led the way 
through a river — halfway across the 
channel suddenly deepened, with mud- 
dy bottom, and an abrupt bank to land 
on — I heard a plaintive appeal, " Mus- 
ter, help me ! my horse is too small." 
Exposure and work do not age them as 
soon as might be expected, but when 
old they become most hideous beldams, 
and the most weird-like witches imagined 
by Dore would be surpassed by a trio 
of Tehuelche grandams. The dress of 
the men consists of a chiripa or under- 
garment round the loins, made of a 
poncho, a piece of cloth, or even of a 
guanaco mantle ; but, whatever the ma- 
terial, this article of dress is indispens 
able and scrupulously worn, their sense 



lyo 



Jl^ HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



of decency being very strong. All other I and warm skin - mantle, which, worn 
garments are supphed by the capacious | with the fur inside and the painted s.de 




out, will keep the wearer dry for a con- I This is often dispensed with in the ch ^se, 
siderable time in the wettest weather. | but if worn when riding is secured at the 



AT HOME WITH THE PATAGONIANS. 



171 



waist by a belt of hide or leather if it 
can be obtained. When in camp 'the 
belt is not used, and the garment is worn 
loose, something after the fashion of the 
melodramatic assassin's cloak. When 
sitting by the fireside, or even when 
walking about, the furred part of the 
mantle is generally kept up over the 
mouth, as the Tehuelches aver that the 
cold wind causes sore gums — a habit 
which assists in rendering their guttural, 
and at all times rather unintelligible, 
language more difficult of comprehen- 
sion to the novice. 

The women's dress consists of a man- 
tle similar to that worn by the men, but 
secured at the throat by a large silver 
pin with a broad disk, or a nail, or thorn, 
according to the wealth or poverty of 
the wearer ; and under this is a loose 
calico or stuff sacque, extending from 
the shoulders to the ankle. When trav- 
eling the mantle is secured at the waist 
by a broad belt ornamented with blue 
beads and silver or brass studs. The 
boots worn by the women are similar to 
those described, with the exception that 
in their preparation the hair is left on 
the hide, while it is carefully removed 
from those of the men. The children 
are dressed in small mantles, but are 
more frequently allowed to run about 
naked up to the age of six or eight : their 
little boots are made from the skin taken 
from the fore legs of the guanaco, soft- 
ened in the hand. The small children 
generally remonstrated strongly and ef- 
fectually against wearing this article of 
clothing, and, whatever the severity of 
the weather, preferred running about 
barefoot. The cradles for the babies are 
formed of strips of wickerwork interlaced 
with hide thongs, fitted with a cover to 
keep sun and rain off, and made of a 
convenient shape to rest on the saddle- 
gear of the mother when on the march. 
They are ornamented, if the parents are 
wealthy, with little bells, brass or even 
silver plates. The women are fond of 
ornaments, wearing huge earrings of 
square shape, suspended to small rings 
passing through the lobe of the ear; 
also silver or blue-bead necklaces. The 
men also wear these necklaces, and 



adorn their belts, pipes, knives, sheaths 
and horse-gear with silver. Those who 
can afford it also indulge in silver spurs 
and stirrups : most of their ornaments, 
except the beads, are homemade, being 
beaten out of dollars obtained by com- 
merce in the settlements. Both sexes 
smear their faces, and occasionally their 
bodies, with paint, the Indians alleging 
as the reason for using this cosmetic thai 
it is a protection against the effect of the 
winds ; and I found from personal ex- 
perience that it proved a complete pre- 
servative from excoriation or chapped 
skin. The paint for the face is composed 
of either red ochre or black earth mixed 
%rith grease obtained from the marrow- 
bones of the game killed in the chase, 
all of which are carefully husbanded by 
the women, and when opportunity offers 
pounded and boiled in the large pots, 
the grease and gelatine being carefully 
skimmed off and secured. On state oc- 
casions, such as a birth-feast, and for a 
dance, the men further adorn themselves 
with white paint or powdered gypsum, 
which they moisten and rub on their 
hands, and make five white finger-marks 
over their chests, arms and legs. The 
usual morning toilette is simple : after 
the plunge in the river, which is almost 
always the first thing — except of course 
when circumstances prevent it — indulged 
in by both sexes, who bathe scrupulous- 
ly apart, and generally before daylight, 
the men's hair is dressed by their wives, 
daughters or sweethearts, who take the 
greatest care to burn any hairs that may 
be brushed out, as they fully believe that 
spells may be wrought by evil-intention- 
ed persons who can obtain a piece of 
their hair. From the same idea, after 
cutting meir nails the parings are care- 
fully committed to the flames. After 
the hair-brushing, which is performed by 
means of a rude hand-brush, the women 
adorn the men's faces with paint : if in 
mourning they put on black paint, and 
if going to fight, sometimes put a little 
white paint under the eyes, which assists 
in contrast to the other in giving a sav- 
age expression. The women paint each 
other's faces, or if possessed, as some- 
times occurs, of a fragment of looking- 



AT HOME WITH THE FATAGONIANS. 



glass, paint their own. Both sexes tattoo 
on the forearm, by the simple process of 
puncturing the skin with a bodkin and 
inserting a mixture of blue earth with a 
piece of dry glass : the usual patterns 
consist of a series of parallel lines, and 
sometimes a single triangle or a double 
triangle, the upper one resting on the 
apex of the lower. I myself had one 
line tattooed by a fair enslaver, and con- 
fess that the process was rather painful. 
The religion of the Tehuelches is dis- 
tinguished from that of the Pampas and 
Araucanians by the absence of any trace 
of sun-worship, although the new moon 
is saluted, the respectful gesture being ac- 
companied by some low muttered words 
which I never could manage to hear. 
They believe in a great and good Spirit, 
though they think he lives "careless of 
mankind." They have no idols or ob- 
jects of worship, nor — if a year's expe- 
rience can enable one to judge — do they 
observe any periodical religious festival 
on which either the good or evil spirit is 
adored. The mention of this by other 
travelers can only be explained by con- 
fused accounts which have attributed 
Araucanian customs to the totally dis- 
tinct Patagonians. The belief which 
prompts all their religious acts is that in 
the existence of many active and jna- 
licious evil spirits or demons, of whom 
the principal one is always on the watch 
to cause mischief. To propitiate or drive 
away this spirit is the function of the 
wizard, or doctor, or medicine-man, who 
combines the medical and magical arts, 
though not possessed of an exclusive 
faculty for either. All sacrifices of mares 
and horses, not at stated times, but as 
occasion requires, such as a birth, death, 



etc., are intended to propitiate the Gua- 
lichu. When a child hurts itself, the 
slaughter of mares seems to partake ai 
once of the nature of a thank-offering 
that the hurt was no worse, and a pro- 
pitiation to avert further harm. 

Whilst in their native wilds I observed 
little immorality amongst the Indians : 
in the settlements, however, when de- 
based by intoxication, they are no doubi 
depraved and loose in their ideas. But 
it must be recorded that on the entry of 
the Indians into the settlements of the 
Rio Negro at a subsequent period, most 
of the young women and girls were left 
with the toldos in Valchita, outside the 
Travesia, to be out of the way of temp- 
tations. There are many Tehuelche 
youths now growing up who have tht- 
greatest abhorrence of liquor ; and 1 
hope that in time this abstinence will 
spread farther among them, for they 
possess no intoxicants of their own, and 
the rum is an import from the Christians, 
the ill effects of which they are well able 
to discern. 

One word of advice to the future trav- 
eler may conclude this imperfect sketch. 
Never show distrust of the Indians : be- 
as free with your goods and chattels as 
they are to each other. Don't ever 
■want anything done for you — always 
catch and saddle your own horse. Don't 
give yourself airs of superiority, as they 
do not understand it, unless you can 
prove yourself better in some distinct 
way. Always be first, as you are not 
likely to be encumbered by a wife or 
gear, in crossing rivers or any other dif- 
ficulties : they will learn by degrees to 
respect you. In a word, as you treat 
them so they will treat you. 



A TOUR, IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



173 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



"\ T 7HAT a prospect I 



A six months* 
tour in the China seas, with the 
promise of touching at points of interest 



"all along the'coast," sketching all man- 
ner of sccrxQs^kl iibiiu/n, and gathering 
specimens inJHverv department of nat- 




ural science ! Who could withstand such 
a temptation ? True, I had been over the 
<Mound before — -had lingered long and 



lovingly among the temples and palms 
and all the indescribable wealth of trop- 
ical life and scenery as it lay outspread 



174 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



beneath the soft, warm skies and float- 
ing, fleecy clouds, the glorious starlight 
gleamings and golden sunsets, that con- 
stitute the great charm of the dreamy 
East. But memories of former tours had 
only whetted the appetite for a repeti- 
tion of the feast, and I made no delay in 
accepting the invitation. The Lady of 
Lyons had touched at Singapore for wa- 
ter and provisions, bringing to us, in the 
person of her commander, the famihar 
face of an old friend, the genial com- 
panion of our first year's life in the 
Orient. Then "auld lang syne " had to 
be discussed, and the interval that bridged 
the past and present talked over ; but the 
vessel was to sail in two days at farthest, 
so said her chief, and our communings 
must perforce be adjourned to where the 
friendship began — on shipboard. For- 
tunately, such inveterate excursionists 
needed short time for preparation. Light 
grass-cloth suits and straw hats, of which 
a fresh supply can be purchased at any 
point of the journey, do not require 
"Saratogas" for packing, books and 
baskets are easy of transit, and the 
ubiquitous comprador looks out for the 
rest. So a bright, breezy morning in 
the waning days of August found our 
little party "all aboard," and ready to 
enter with eager zest upon such explo- 
rations and adventures as the future 
might offer. ,, 

]\Iy earliest cruise in the China Seas 
had been among the almost continuous 
chain of islands, the narrow passages, 
reefs and shoals, that form the distin- 
guishing features of the entire route from 
New South Wales to the island of For- 
mosa by the north-eastern course, bring- 
ing successively to view the mountain- 
peaks of Australia, the dense forests of 
New Guinea, the emerald verdure of 
Gillolo and Morty, the abrupt cliffs of 
Mindanao, and others of the lovely Phil- 
hppine group. The course of the Lady 
of Lyons was to the south-west of Borneo, 
along the shores of a distinct division of 
these tropic islands, chief among which 
are Sumatra, Java and Timor. These, 
with Floris, Bally, Sumbawa and a host 
of smaller isles, mostly of volcanic origin, 
and many of them uninhabited, form 



the natural boundary between the Indo- 
China Sea and the Pacific. After several 
days' cruising among the myriad of tiny 
islets that render navigation in the Java 
Sea so replete with danger, the Straits 
of Sunda were passed, and then the nar- 
row strait that separates Timor from Om- 
bay. For the latter we were fortunate in 
having a full moon and a strong wester- 
ly breeze, enabling us to make the pas- 
sage by night, and thus obtaining such a 
vision of radiant beauty as comes but 
rarely even beneath tropic skies. On 
our right were distinctly visible the clear 
smooth outlines of Timor, with its fringed 
verdure reaching down to the very wa- 
ters, while on the left towered in grandeur 
the volcanic peaks of Floris, Panthar 
and Ombay, seeming to rise out of the 
very bosom of the sea, their sides wreath- 
ed in fleecy vapor, and their lurid summits 
seeming to pierce the blue ether. 

At daylight we anchored off the coast 
of Timor, and spent the day in roaming 
about in the vicinity of the Portuguese 
settlement of Baton Guidi, a miserably 
dilapidated trading ranche, equally at va- 
riance with the verdant tropical beauty 
all around and the splendor of the con- 
quests achieved in these seas by the sword 
of Albuquerque in old days. With a most 
genial chmate, and a soil of perennial 
verdure capable of producing in abun- 
dance all the tropical fruits and grains, 
this island of Timor, as large as that of 
Sicily, has a population of scarcely more 
than five hundred thousand ; and, though 
a flourishing depot of trade in the early 
part of the seventeenth century, it is now 
rapidly sinking into insignificance. The 
Portuguese have under cultivation only 
a narrow belt of soil on the seaboard in 
the immediate vicinity of Baton Guidi, 
where, intermingled with forest trees, 
grow luxuriantly grapes, bananas, gua- 
vas and shaddocks. The Chinese have a 
settlement on the northern coast, whence 
they export sandal-wood, wax, fruits and 
fish to Java and Singapore, driving a 
brisk trade and growing rich by industry 
and frugality, as John Chinaman always 
does, settle where he may. The aborig- 
inal Malays still occupy some portions 
of the interior, living in a condition so 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



175 



littic above that of the brutes as to fur- 
nish the best apology for Darwinism it 
has been my fortune to meet in any part 
of the world. The residue, comprising 
perhaps the major portion of this lovely 



island, is the heritage of monkeys, who 
gibe and chatter from tree to tree, and 
certainly seem to thrive, "multiply and 
increase" in this stronghold of their race. 
The third day found us again undo 








weigh, steering toward the Moluccas or 
Spice Islands, of which Amboyna is the 
most noted, as well as the chief empor- 
ium of trade, and the residence of the 
Dutch governor. To this group also be- 



long Morty and Gillolo, north of the line, 
and Booro, Obi, Batchian, Mysole, Wai- 
gou, the Isles of Banda and Salawatti 10 
the south — a vast territory of rich arable 
and forest lands, suggestive of wondrous 



! 76 



A rOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



possibilities under better management ; 
but many of the islands are wholly un- 
cultivated, showing dense forests, into 
which man has probably never pene- 
trated, though the timber is said to be of 
the finest quality. Amboyna is specially 
devoted to the culture of the clove, and 
the Isles of Banda to the nutmeg. 

The island of Amboyna is composed 
of two mountainous peninsulas, united 
at their eastern extremity by a narrow 
isthmus. Fronting the beautiful bay 
stands Port Victory, built by the Portu- 
guese in the early part of the sixteenth 
century, and taken by the Dutch in 1605. 
The anchorage-ground is underneath the 
very walls of this fort — a safe, wide har- 
bor where usually float vessels of half a 
score of nations. We landed at evening, 
the glorious tropical sunshine bathing 
with the gold of its expiring rays roof 
and gable, tree and shrub, and shedding 
a bright haze over the smooth waters, 
into which dipped great fern leaves twice 
the height of a man, while whole for- 
ests of graceful trees filled up the back- 
ground. On the coast are extensive fac- 
tories for storing, selling and shipping 
the spices, while toward the interior, as 
far as the eye can reach, stretch the plan- 
tations whose balsamic perfume fills the 
air. Amboyna is also a grand depot for 
shells, which are shipped to every quar- 
ter of the civilized world. Many rare 
and beautiful varieties, among them the 
ear-shell, so called from its exact resem- 
blance to the human ear, and the exqui- 
site paper nautilus, are peculiar to Am- 
boyna. Choice specimens of the flesh- 
tinted ear-shells bring readily five hun- 
dred rupees a pair, and are eagerly sought 
for by naturalists and amateur collectors. 
The Chinese, who are by far the most 
thrifty portion of the population, drive a 
brisk trade in shells and corals, shipping 
to Singapore and Canton, and amassing 
fortunes by the traffic. They are also 
largely engaged in the cultivation and 
sale of spices, and their plantations are 
said to be the best on these islands. The 
unflagging industry of the Chinese is so 
strikingly in contrast with the indolence 
and effeminacy of the European resi- 
dents their neatness and thrift so unlike 



the filth and squalor of the Malays, and 
their good-humor under all circumstances 
so imperturbable, that they are universally 
respected, often holding offices of honor 
and emolument in the municipality ; and 
by the annual payment of a trifling poll- 
tax they are permitted to have in their 
own quarter a Chinese police force, in- 
spector-general and port-captain, with 
whom alone they have to deal in affairs 
among themselves, while the officers re- 
port at stated times to the local authori- 
ties appointed by the Dutch government. 

It is now about two centuries and a 
half since the Chinese began to settle in 
Amboyna, and though, in accordance 
with their invariable custom of taking 
wives of the people among whom they 
colonize, they have all along intermar- 
ried with the Malays, their children have 
been reared in their own national pecu- 
liarities of religion, dress and language. 
Nature, too, has seemed to aid them, for 
these Chinese children of Malayan moth- 
ers retain, after all these years of colon- 
ization, not only the thrift, industry and 
wonderful business capacity of their 
fathers, but the identical high cheek- 
bones, square foreheads and oblique 
angle of the eye that characterize the 
native-born Celestial of unmixed descent. 

The entire population of Amboyna is 
scarcely forty thousand for both penin- 
sulas, and of these some ten or twelve 
thousand reside within the settlement. 
The town, which is composed of three 
distinct quarters, is built so completely 
in the rear of the fort as to be almost 
hidden from the sea by the shadow of 
its immense walls. In the European sec- 
tion, which is that nearest the citadel, the 
houses are painted or plastered white, 
and with their graceful colonnades or 
verandahs, an abundance of shade trees 
and an occasional flower-garden in front, 
they present a cool and attractive ap- 
pearance. To the left is the Malay cam- 
pon_<^, with bamboo huts built on each 
side of a little stream that discharges its 
waters into Amboyna Bay. The low, 
thatched roofs are often hidden by the 
thick jungle that is suffered to intrude 
almost to the doors of the cabins ; and 
the whole asoect is one of shadowv 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



177 



gloom, in strong contrast with the neat, 
cheery air of the Chinese quarter, where 
each house is adorned with painted silk 
lanterns, and with gayly-colored screens 



that freely admit the breeze without in- 
terfering with the privacy of the domestic 
menage. 

At Ternate and Tidor reside the only 




ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR AMARAL AT MACAO. 



two native princes who yet retain even a 
semblance of power over their ancient 
dominions ; and these two islands, among 
the smallest of the Molucca group, are 
rather the political centres of the aborig- 



inal inhabitants than agricultural or com-, 
mercial establishments. The people, in 
feature, habits and national character- 
istics, are the most perfect type of the 
Malay race to be met with anywhere, 



178 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



while the language is said to be spoken 
with greater purity in the Moluccas than 
in any other of their settlements. Hence 
it has been argued that the Moluccas 
form the cradle of the Malayan race, 



though their original country is not cer- 
tainly known. But traditions current ai 
Celebes, Malacca, Singapore and Suma 
tra all point to the Moluccas, and assign 
their oriein to the beginning of the twelfth 




century. The story is, that a pirate chief 
of the Celebes touching at the Moluccas 
a number of his people deserted, and 
concealed themselves in the jungle till 
the ship had sailed. The island was 



then uninhabited, except by a few fish- 
ermen and their families, who had come 
here to ply their trade. They lived in 
boats, and are supposed to have belong- 
ed to the Orang Laut, "men of water/' 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



179 



so numerous about Singapore, and about 
the most pitiable and degraded specimens 
of humanity known to exist. They are 
born, live and die in boats, usually go 



naked, and subsist entirely on fish, worms 
and grubs. The men who deserted took 
the daughters of these fishermen for wives 
and drove off the males of the party, re- 




SAO QUA S SHOP AT CANTON. 



taining two of their boats for foraging 
expeditions to the neighboring islands, 
whence wives were obtained for those 
of the party not already supplied. They 
grew, in time, to be a numerous people. 



sent colonies to Sumatra, Singapore, 
Malacca and Celebes, and, rising to do- 
minion, expelled or destroyed the abo- 
rigines and took possession of their lands. 
The Malays of modern times exhibit the 



i8o 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



lawless habits of their fathers, and seem 
to retain the peiichant of their maternal 
ancestors for boat-life, the combination 
forming the piratical proclivities for which 
the entire race is noted. We saw from 
our ship's deck several of their pleasure- 
excursions, always by water, in the long, 
narrow batteaux called by the Malays 
ko7'o-koro. They are usually paddled 
by half a dozen oarsmen, and are fur- 
nished also with a rude mast and sail of 
cocoa matting. The stroke of the oars 
is invariably accompanied by music, of 
which the Malays are passionately fond. 
Their instruments — cymbals, timbrels, 
and occasionally drums — are of very 
primitive make, whilst their songs, im- 
provised for the occasion, are often ten- 
der and touching. It is a current saying 
among the Malays that "all the love of 
a man's nature is thrown into his songs, 
and all the hate goes out at the point of 
his kris (dagger)." 

Before taking leave of the Moluccas 
we paid a visit, by special invitation, to 
the Malayan rajah at Ternate, the grand 
inducement being to witness the famous 
"sword-dance" that was announced for 
the occasion. It was performed by a 
score or two of ten-year-old boys, who 
rushed pell-mell into the arena, appar- 
ently on murderous thoughts intent, but 
armed only with wooden swords. Their 
costume was an imitation of that of the 
Spanish hidalgo, except the hats, which 
were monstrous affairs of black felt curi- 
ously decorated with the wings and tails 
of birds-of-paradise, so wound and twist- 
ed up with other materials as to form im- 
mense turbans. The clang of wooden 
blades and the echo of bare feet over 
the smooth inlaid floor, with the cheery 
sounds of fresh young voices, rang 
through the spacious saloon : piquant 
brown faces were aglow with fun, and 
mischievous black eyes danced danger- 
ously as these youthful Terpsichoreans 
flew wildly around in several very grace- 
ful and exciting dances. There was no 
selection of partners, but each took po- 
sition according to his own fancy as 
they whizzed and whirled simultaneously 
about each other within the circumfer- 
ence of an imaginary circle, performing 



the most eccentric gyrations and describ- 
ing a variety of figures utterly incompre- 
hensible to the uninitiated. After these 
came martial exercises, a sort of hand- 
to-hand combat of the entire company, 
each selecting his own opponent ; and the 
affair wound up by a general rush upon 
their leader, driving him into a corner, 
and then surrounding him with a circle 
of crossed swords, and compelling him 
to capitulate for his release. Then they 
formed themselves into two bands, and 
carried on a mock battle with all man- 
ner of unheard-of manoeuvres — so skill- 
fully managed, however, on both sides 
that forty minutes elapsed before either 
gained an advantage. At last one of the 
leaders captured his opponent's sword, 
and, snapping the blade in twain, threw 
the pieces across the stage, for which in- 
trepid act he was rewarded by the gift of 
a real sword from his sovereign, while 
the vanquished retired in disgrace. Sev- 
eral epic poems illustrative of the war- 
dances were recited, and occasionally a 
stout little improvisatore, who could not 
have seen more than eight years, enter- 
tained us with a farcical song that elicit- 
ed thunders of applause. 

From this exhibition we passed to the 
supper-room, and spent an hour very 
pleasantly in conversation with the rajah 
— "sultan" by courtesy, but really only 
a pensioned official under the Dutch gov- 
ernment, from which he receives an an- 
nuity of about fourteen thousand dollars. 
It is rather amusing to watch the stereo- 
typed forms of etiquette so punctiliously 
observed between the "sultan" and the 
"resident" on all public occasions, each 
extremely chary of yielding an iota to 
the other. There happened to be a 
court-ball given by the resident during 
our stay, at which the sultan, his lady 
(the Hollanders will acknowledge but 
otie of the sultan's numerous wives as 
such) and his adult children were guests. 
According to the programme, the resident 
received the sultan at the door of the 
main reception-room, embraced him, and 
led him to a seat beside his own. The 
ball was opened by the resident with the 
sultana, having for his vis-a-vis the sul- 
tan, upon whose brown palm rested the. 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



181 



white glove of the Hollander's fair-hair- 
ed dame. At supper there were two 
tables precisely alike, at one of which 
the host presided, at the other his illus- 



trious guest — an arrangement intended 
to waive the solution of the very difficult 
enigma as to which of these illustrious 
potentates was entitled to precedence. 




THK TAOU-TAI OF SHANGHAI PRESENTING HIS DAUGHTER TO THE OFFICERS OF THE 

BAYONNAISE. 



The rajah is a handsome specimen of 
his race, a well-preserved, rather intel- 
lectual man of sixty, with a fund of dry 
humor and an eager zest for novelty and 



excitement. His dress, when we saw 
him, was ordinarily a dark silk saratig, 
with a jacket of blue or green velvet 
richly embroidered, and confined at the 



l82 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



waist by a jeweled girdle, with a silken 
turban of vast dimensions profusely stud- 
ded with glittering gems. 

From the Moluccas we steered direct 
for the China coast, leaving the Philip- 
pine Islands to be visited on our return. 
Our first stopping-place was Macao, the 
approach to which is exceedingly pic- 
turesque, the white houses outspread be- 
tween green hills, and presenting in front 
a long line of tasteful dwellings over- 
looking a lovely bay. The heights are 
crowned with the spires and turrets of 
churches and convents, and the city is 
flanked by two forts on the plain, while 
on the central mount, which is steep and 
towering, stands the Monte. This is the 
largest of the fortifications, mounting 
forty-seven guns, and commanding not 
only the harbor, but the little cove of 
Macao and the encircling Praya Grande, 
with the principal buildings that occupy 
the plains between these heights. The 
Portuguese, like the Spaniards, have the 
art of clothing their buildings and cities 
with an *air of antiquity ; and Macao, 
with its narrow streets and the quaint 
architecture of its public edifices, looks 
venerably ancient. The city contains 
about thirty thousand Chinese, with a 
drifting European population of from 
six to ten thousand, but its government, 
religion and customs are essentially Por- 
tuguese. A stranger will find many ob- 
jects of interest in this quaint old city. 
Among the first that attracted us was 
the Cave of Camoens, the lovely grotto 
wherein the exiled poet of Lusitania 
courted his muse, and sang the praises 
of the first -bold hero who doubled the 
"Cape of Storms," thus opening to the 
Western World the princely treasures of 
India. The cave is in the Casa Gardens, 
and the mansion beneath which one has 
to pass to the garden and grotto is held 
by a Portuguese family of distinction, 
with the proviso that strangers shall be 
freely^admitted at all times. The pas- 
sage through the basement conducts to 
a large enclosure and a hill having its 
base laid off in terraces, all planted with 
shrubbery. From the terraces upward 
are steep pathways winding through the 
jungle-growth of the hillside, and by one 



of these the cave is entered. There were 
formerly, we were told, a tablet and 
white-coated bust of the poet placed in 
the natural niche where he loved to sil 
and muse, but the bust we could find no 
traces of, and the existing tablet is one 
of a date too recent ever to have been 
seen by the ill-fated poet, while its in- 
scription is in French. The author we 
were unable to ascertain. Even more 
interesting than the cave is the little ob- 
servatory on the farther brow of the hill, 
whence may be seen the Temple of the 
Queen of Heaven on the outskirts of the 
city, the Halfway Pagoda lying midway 
between Canton and Whampoa, Casa 
Bianca far up the harbor, innumerable 
Chinese junks and flower-boats, with the 
clustering hamlets along the shore, and 
off in the distance Priests' Island, occu- 
pied, so say the Chinese, exclusively by 
Booddhist priests, without either woman 
or child to mar its sacred shades. What 
a delectable time those seven thousand 
men must have ! The flower-boats, as I 
learned afterward, are a peculiar insti- 
tution of the Chinese, especially in the 
vicinity of Canton. Their exte7Hor, the 
only part I saw, is adorned with wreaths 
and garlands of fresh flowers mingled 
with pretty arabesques. The interior 
was described to me as the very abode 
of sensual luxury, furnished with silk 
hangings, gayly- colored lanterns, mir- 
rors, pictures and lounges fit to adorn 
the palace of a queen : their use is that 
of theatres for the most debasing plays, 
amorous concerts and sensual pleasures 
of the lowest grade. 

One day of our stay at Macao was 
given to the exploration of Mr. Beale's 
botanical garden, with its manifold trea- 
sures of plants native and foreign, his 
aviaries and aquariums. Among the 
flowers were some choice varieties of the 
pink and white lotus ( 7V5^;;z^/^.?fl; ;z£'/z/;/^^i9) , 
so cherished by the Chinese in connec- 
tion with their religious rites, and care- 
fully cultivated in every Chinese temple. 
Scarlet asclepias mingled their brilliant 
blooms with variegated bignonias and 
real Oriental daffodils, while a dozen or 
more charming varieties of tropical lilies 
shed their sweet perfume, and all along 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



183 



the trellis -work between orange and 
almond trees clambered vines of the 
winged passion-flower and bride -like 
moon -creeper with its scented waxen 



blooms, twining and interlacing their 
graceful foliage in lofty festoons or trail- 
ing like huge floral serpents along the 
ground. Chinese lanterns of pale blue 




A CUCK-FIUHT IN A STREET IN MANILLA. 



*■ 



and rose-colored silk hung everywhere, 
and when lighted up at night a sort of 
luminous haze that -seemed transcend- 
ently lovely enveloped every object be- 
iongfing- to this magic scene. Some, of 



the aquariums contained queer-looking 
monsters in the way of flying-fish, sea- 
crabs and star-fish that could live only 
in salt water, while in others sported 
myriads of gold and silver fish of several 



1 84 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



varieties. But most charming of all the 
treasures these beautiful gardens contain 
are the aviaries, in looking at which the 
visitor forgets everything else. One of 
them, in the rear of the dwelling, is forty 
feet long, some fifteen feet wide, and of 
sufficient height to accommodate two 
large trees and some good-sized rocks. 
Here the birds find ample room to ex- 
ercise, build nests and rear their young, 
as freely as in their native woods ; for, 
walls and roof being of fine wire, neith- 
er air nor sunshine is obstructed, while 
grass and shrubbery thrive as well with- 
in as without the pavilion. A large pool 
in the centre furnishes the aquatic birds 
with a sporting-place that they evident- 
ly enjoy. The immense family, com- 
posed of birds from so many climes and 
of habits so diverse, dwell together in 
perfect harmony under their spacious 
canopy. And how wondrously gay they 
looked in their many-tinted plumage ! 
Gold and silver pheasants, graceful as 
lovely ; pink-nosed Java sparrows, prim 
and prudish ; flaunting cockatoos, paro- 
quets, adjutants and macaws ; English 
nightingales, peerless in song as demure 
in color ; exquisite mandarin ducks, only 
four inches long from the point of their 
crimson beaks to the tip of their parti- 
colored tails ; and scores of others that I 
cannot even name rendered the air vo- 
cal with their songs. Rarest of all was 
a specimen of the bird-of-paradise of the 
species known as the Paradisea apoda, 
distinguished by its brightly-tinted curv- 
ing fillets of some fourteen inches in 
length springing from beneath the wings. 
This bird has been in Mr. Beale's pos- 
session twenty years, and was the only 
one he had ever known tamed or kept 
in confinement without dying in a few 
months. 

Adjoining the Casa Garden is the Eu- 
ropean cemetery, and near by is the Gate 
of St. Anthony and a stone cross that 
commemorates a miracle. This was no 
less an affair (so said my Portuguese 
guide) than the descent of the saint from 
heaven when Macao was attacked by the 
Dutch in 1622, and miraculously saved to 
its Portuguese owners. There are thou- 
sands of good citizens in Macao who be- 



lieve this wonderful story; and the cross 
was erected in grateful recognition of the 
services of their patron saint, who was at 
the same time elected colonel of the Ma- 
cao regiment, the pay and rations accru- 
ing therefrom being duly collected by his 
faithful stewards the priests of St. An- 
thony's church. 

It was on the outskirts of this usually 
quiet city that Captain Amaral, the Por- 
tuguese governor of Macao, was atro- 
ciously murdered by Chinese ruffians in 
1849. Though his rare energy and fix- 
edness of purpose, coupled with extra- 
ordinary diplomatic ability, enabled him, 
without money or ships at command and 
with but a handful of soldiers, to save the 
city confided to his keeping from deser- 
tion and utter ruin, his intrepidity cost 
him his life. Captain Amaral's refusal 
to yield to the unjust requisitions of the 
Chinese local authorities, and his stern 
integrity to his own government, had, 
very soon after his appointment, won for 
him the bitter animosity of the viceroy 
and mandarins of Canton, where for 
weeks previous to his murder placards 
had been posted offering a reward of 
five thousand dollars for his head — cer- 
tainly with the knowledge, if not the con- 
nivance, of the viceroy. But the imme- 
diate cause of dissatisfaction was the 
closing by the Portuguese governor of 
the Chinese custom-house at Macao, and 
his subsequent order for the removal of 
several Chinese tombs to make way for 
a new city road. Though duly informed 
by his friends of the threats of vengeance 
these innovations had invoked, and urged 
not to venture abroad alone and unarm- 
ed, he only smiled at what he deemed 
groundless apprehensions, and continued 
his walks and rides as before. Shortly 
before sunset on the 22d of August, when 
he was returning to his residence after 
his usual ride, attended by a single aid, 
several Chinamen surrounded the two 
horsemen, and while a lad, holding in 
his hands a long bamboo to which was 
tied a bouquet, approached the governor, 
as if to present the flowers, one of the 
ruffians struck him a blow in the face. 
As he reeled in the saddle six armed 
men joined in the attack. They soon 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



l8^ 



unhorsed the governor and despatched 
him, the aid escaping, though badly 
wounded. The miscreants, after cutting 
off the head and one hand of their vic- 
tim, fled, carrying with them their bloody 



trophies, and were suffered by the Chinese 
guards to make good their escape through 
the gates without challenge. The news 
soon flew through the settlement, being 
received by the natives with exultation, 




by the foreigners with horror and indig- 
nation. Satisfaction was demanded of 
the viceroy, who at first carelessly de- 
clined interference ; and many curious 
developments of a Celestial's ideas of 



justice were brought to view in the com- 
plications that followed ere the final ad- 
justment by recourse to arms. 

Formosa, called by the Chinese Tei- 
Wan, is the granary of China, and one 



1 86 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



of the most fertile spots in the world. 
The rice-plantations are extensive and 
extremely prolific — miles upon miles of 
flooded fields and waving paddy, till the 
traveler's eye wearies of the monotony. 
The scenery of Hiang-Chau, another rice- 
island visited en route to Hong-Kong, is 
charmingly picturesque, the fields being 
laid off in terraces, and watered by in- 
numerable small streams, which are con- 
veyed by ingenious contrivances to every 
section ; and above all waved the slender 
graceful stalks loaded with the ripening 
grain. The cultivation of the rice crop 
is carried on everywhere with the same 
primitive plough drawn by bufialoes, 
with crowds of patient, much-enduring 
women, ankle-deep in water from morn 
till night, sowing the seed, removing and 
resetting the plants ; and when the crop 
is ready to be gathered the women still 
are those who bear the chief burden of 
onerous duty. Hence the Chinese ax- 
iom : "The gods give to the cultivator 
two unfailing helpers — women and buf- 
faloes ; and if either be wanting the 
harvest fails also." 

Both at Canton and Hong-Kong — in- 
deed, everywhere in China — a stranger 
will be attracted by the unique appear- 
ance of the Chinese shops. During 
the day they are thrown entirely open 
in front, with the wares tastefully ar- 
ranged on the other three sides of the 
apartment, a small stairway in one cor- 
ner leading to the upper or dwelling por- 
tion of the house. These shops are very 
models of neatness, some of them con- 
taining a varied assortment of costly 
wares, and occasionally works of art ; 
while the owners, with their long queues 
and costly silken garments, sit in their 
places of business like princes in their 
drawing-rooms, exhibiting a quiet dig- 
nity, and even courtliness, strangely un- 
like the manners of the races about 
them. Every line of merchandise is duly 
represented — silks, teas, fancy goods, 
lacquered wares, jewelry, plate, time- 
pieces, books, musical instruments, birds' 
nests, confections, drugs : everything that 
can be called for, native and foreign, is 
now obtainable in the large cities on the 
coast, so rapid has been the improve- 



ment in the last twenty years. But the 
ushering in of the new epoch has not 
entirely banished the old, as witness the 
stores where gods are made and sold for 
silver dollars ! Ay, and "warranted" too 
— a god of wealth ''sure to makee glow 
liche," says the polite vender; gods of 
fair weather and guardians of health ; 
gods for the sailor and for the farmer — 
for every condition of life, every emer- 
gency, and at all prices. Among the 
most attractive of the shops are the 
fruit- and flower-stalls, usually adorned 
with pretty bird-cages, while John China- 
man deals out his dainty wares, served 
in exquisite porcelain or glass, with lav- 
ishing salaams and courtly words. Few 
visitors at Canton will fail to recall the 
shop of the venerable Sao Qua on Old 
China street, or the gentle breeding of 
the accommodating owner with his frost- 
ed hair and long wadded gown of dark 
silk. Huge silken lanterns hung at the 
entrance, and at the upper end was the 
inevitable altar, never wanting in either 
dwelling or place of business, on which 
fresh offerings of tea, cakes and fruit 
were laid every morning, and incense 
burned perpetually. The old man said 
the fire had never once gone out since 
the days of his grandfather, who built 
and furnished the house, to which Sao 
Qua had duly succeeded, and which his 
son would inherit after him. Said son was 
a frolicsome little five-year-old, exuberant 
with boisterous mirth, thei child of Sao 
Qua's old age and his inseparable com- 
panion. It was beautiful to see them 
thus together, the weary old man seem- 
ing to grow young again in loving con- 
templation of the child's merry pranks ; 
and the little one always tendei and 
gentle when he approached the doating 
sire, whose years and infirmities were an 
enigma his fresh young nature sought in 
vain to comprehend. 

At Shanghai, the regular communica- 
tion by mail and telegraph, the constant 
meeting with travelers from all parts of 
the world, and the frequent association 
in daily life with his compatriots, render 
it difficult for a European to realize that 
he is in China at all ; that is, in the for- 
eign quarter of the city, but the native 



A rOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



1S7 



section is sufficiently Oriental in build- 
ings, costume and customs to dispel the 
illusion. Shanghai is a busy, bustling, 
thriving business-mart, but is not attract- 
ive as a residence. The taoit-tai, the 



highest municipal officer of Shanghai, is 
a mandarin of the third order. The post 
was held at the time of our visit by a 
man of intelligence and liberal policy, 
who acknowledged the superiority of 




Western civilization, and used the in- 
fluence of his position for the advance- 
ment of his people in useful knowledge 
iind arts. He had a lovely daughter of 
whom he was very proud, and whom he 



took great delight in introducing j dis- 
tinguished foreigners. Admiral de la 
Graviere mentions her and her .presen- 
tation to the officers of the Bayo'nnaise, 
and remarks on the fact of her feet be- 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



ing unpressed — a point to which the 
taon-tai called their attention. It is 
noteworthy that while the Tartars after 
their conquest forced upon the Chinese 
the Manchoo style of hair-dressing, they 
themselves have in very few instances 
adopted for their daughters the barbar- 
ous Chinese custom of compressing the 
feet. Hence, with the members of the 
imperial family, and indeed with all 
high-born Tartar ladies, the feet are 
suffered to retain their normal condition. 

We took Japan on our return, and 
then the Philippine group, spending two- 
thirds of a month in cruising among 
these fairy islands, making occasional 
excursions into the interior, and study- 
ing the habits and pastimes of Manilla, 
the metropolis as well as the chief ship- 
ping-port of the Philippines. From the 
great area of this group, stretching from 
the ninth to the eighteenth degree of 
north latitude, the climate exhibits a far 
greater variety than can be found in 
most tropical islands ; while the soil has 
an equally diversified character, being 
in some localities of primitive formation, 
abounding in metallic ores, and in others 
volcanic, with a wondrous degree of fe- 
cundity. The scenery is varied and pic- 
turesque, and the geographical position 
of this lovely archipelago cannot fail to 
strike the tourist as being singularly fe- 
licitous. Situated close to the coast of 
China, with which it has an extensive 
trade, in convenient proximity to the 
thriving empire of Japan, connected by 
an unbroken chain with all the islands 
to the south and west for thousands of 
miles, and lying in the direct route be- 
tween the Old and New Worlds, it af- 
fords a convenient stopping -place for 
large numbers of vessels, especially on 
the outward passage. 

Spain has for centuries guarded with 
jealous care this fairest of all her Eastern 
colonies, and seeking to bind more firm- 
ly about her brow so regal a coronet of 
ocean gems, vigorous efforts were made 
from the first not only to convert the 
people to the Catholic faith, but so to 
inculcate Spanish habits and tastes that 
tne presence of the conquerors should 
become essential to the conquered. A 



very large proportion of the present in- 
habitants are, at least nominally, Chris- 
tians, and the incorporation of Spanish 
dignity and intelligence with native ar- 
dor and vivacity has produced a race 
the most high-toned, bold and energetic 
of all the tribes of the Asiatic archipela- 
goes. The Philippine gentleman carries 
himself with true Spanish hauteur, while 
his very sports betray a mingling of the 
tastes of Old Spain with the native indo- 
lence and grace of this voluptuous clime. 
But in lieu of bull- baiting the Philippine 
Islander solaces himself with cock-fights, 
into which he enters with real gusto, and 
one must be an eye-witness of a Manilla 
spurring-match to conceive, even faintly, 
the excij:ement of such a scene. The 
ordinarily placid, indolent native forgets, 
with the debut of his favorite game-fowl, 
all his constitutional sluggishness, phys- 
ical and mental : his eyes gleam like 
those of a fiery serpent, his slight figure 
dilates with intense excitement, and a 
nervous tremor is apparent in every mo- 
tion. For the time, that gay-colored lit- 
tle bird which for weeks or nrionths he 
has been carefully training for the con- 
flict, and which he holds now so love- 
ingly between his arms, is all the world 
to him — his solitary investment for future 
fame and fortune — the single die upon 
which he would not hesitate to stake his 
entire family, or even his own life. And 
the bystanders, of whom there is always 
a crowd, are scarcely less interested. 
With each successive trial of skill be- 
tween the combatants the excitement 
waxes more intense, betting grows bold- 
er, and the motley gang become almost 
frenzied in their curiosity as to the re- 
sult. These cock-fights and the cere- 
monials of his religion are the only oc- 
casions when a Philippine Islander for- 
gets to be nonchalant and dignified ; but 
these, by their very excess of ardor, 
make up for the lack of all others. Not 
only is the penchnttt for such games 
traceable directly to Spanish influence, 
but the local authorities boast of deriv- 
ing a considerable revenue from the 
taxes levied upon them. 

Desiring to get some glimpses of the 
aboriginal life where it was least tram- 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



189 



meled by foreign influence, we arranged 
a visit to the great island of Luconia, 
governed in part by a native rajah, and 
peopled by nearly two millions of souls. 



Starting two hours before sunset in a 
native btidgerow pulled by half a dozen 
oarsmen, we reached the island by day- 
light, and having breakfasted on nee and 




SERVANTS OF DOCTOR BURGER AT BATA\TA. 



shellfish curry with a party at a little fish- 
ing-village on the coast, we set forth in 
search of adventures. Our conveyance 
was a primitive one — a sort of caleche 
-drawn by oxen, sure-footed, trusty beasts, 



but indolent and slow like all their sur- 
roundings : the very rivulets seem to flow 
sluggishly, and the grand, beautiful river, 
that fertilizes some of the lovehest vales 
and meadows in the world, forces its wav 



tgo 



A TOUR IN THE CHINA SEAS. 



over shelving rocks in a noiseless cata- 
ract, as if under protest. Our road lay 
between long lines of palma christi and 
guava trees laden with fruit and foliage, 
while the hedges were lined with the 
ever-blooming melastroma, fragrant and 
fair as a bride adorned for her spouse. 
Here and there a bamboo hut or rural 
cottage proclaimed the presence of the 
wood-cutter or farmer, and women and 
girls flitted about in dainty and singular- 
ly seductive garb, that displayed the sym- 
metry of voluptuous forms even more 
perfectly than an undress could do. Yet, 
withal, there was evident modesty, even 
coyness, that forbade all thoughts of un- 
due familiarity. From the widespread 
doors of the cottages we saw constantly 
such scenes as the illustration portrays 
— a young mother, with the careless 
abandon of conscious innocence, spend- 
ing the sultry hours of midday in her 
swinging hammock watching the gam- 
bols of her offspring — the little ones, as 
well as the mother, very prodigies of 
grace and buoyant health. 

At the charming little village of Taal, 
the most populous and thrifty of the Lu- 
conian settlements, we saw for the first 
time the tiny looms in which are woven 
the exquisite pineapple scarfs and hand- 
kerchiefs so famous for their delicate 
texture. The modus operandi seemed 
very simple. The fibre of the tuft of 
leaves at the top of the fruit is stripped 
out, cleaned, carded and spun by hand 
— the best to exceeding fineness. The 
looms are quaint little affairs of novel 
construction, and both hands and feet 
are used in operating them. The ex- 
quisite embroidery is all the work of 
men, whose pliant fingers are never suf- 
fered to be stiffened by rough labor. 
These scarfs and handkerchiefs can be 
purchased only at Manilla; and so great 
is the demand that they are usually sold 
three or four years in advance of their 
manufacture. At Gassig, a village of 
thirty thousand inhabitants, there is a 
brisk trade with Manilla in the products 
of the islands — gold, sugar, sapan-wood, 
ebony, indigo, coffee, sulphur, cotton, 
cordage, mother-of-pearl shells, tortoise- 
shell and many m.inor articles — but the 



native traders ship nothing direct lu ji.u- 
rope. All passes through the hands of 
foreign merchants, mainly those of Ma- 
nilla, and the revenues are immense. 

Taking a reluctant leave of this peace- 
ful Arcadia, its flowery vales and simple- 
hearted people, we continued our route fo 
Calcutta, touching at Batavia, the quaint 
old city described in a former number 
of this Magazine. An old friend, a 
wealthy Hollander, offered the hospital- 
ities of his house during the few days 
we were to remain, and at evening we 
were driven in pony palanquins to his 
elegant mansion in the "new city." Em- 
bowered in palms and orange trees, with 
its spacious balcony supported by mar- 
ble columns and its sumptuous appoint- 
ments inviting to luxurious repose, it 
seemed a very paradise — meet abode 
for the fair-haired wife and blooming 
young daughters who welcomed us so 
kindly. We dined the next day at the 
mansion of Dr. Burger, and spent some 
agreeable hours among the wonders of 
his gardens and green-houses, filled with 
all manner of floral beauty and fragrance. 
Flowers and birds were the doctor's 
grande passion, and both v/ere carefully 
tended by the numerous retinue of fe- 
male servants, whose position in that 
abode of affluence was a mere sinecure : 
their wants being amply supplied, they 
had little to do besides waiting on their 
own husbands and children. 

Dr. Burger used to be one of the nota- 
bilities of Batavia, and a general favorite 
among his friends. A man of liberal 
education, large fortune and many ec- 
centricities, he led an easy, idle life 
among his books and flowers, devoting 
his abundant leisure to the indulgence 
of his own refined tastes, his money to 
the relief of suffering wherever he found 
it, and his genial good-humor to the in- 
creased happiness of every living thing 
within his reach. His abode furnished 
a fair type of the multitude of elegant 
bachelor establishments that abound in 
all the European settlements of the East 
— abundantly provided with all manner 
ofdelights, and theirhospitable doors ever 
open to the tourist and the stranger. 

Fannie R. Feudge. 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROAIE. THE PAINTER. 



191 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



PART FIRST. 



*HF caravan took a route that was ] of such choice spirits, and the aspect of 
not very new, but it was made up things became so novel from their fresl^ 




and unconventional point of view, that 
the spectacle of Egypt was in a measure 
transfigured, and took on changes as of 



a familiar garment worn inside out 
Gerome, the leader, was at home in Cai 
ro. The little band chose for him tlie 



192 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GAROME THE PAINTER. 



title of Colonel ; which must be pro- 
nounced trisyllabically, Co-lo-nel, or it 
will acquire an American, militia-train- 
ing, stand-up-for-a-drink sort of flavor, 
as far as possible from the humor in 
which it was conferred. Readers of 
these pages who have admired those 
dramatic compositions of his, those tell- 
ing anecdotes expressed m color, those 
epigrams of antique nisiory wnich con- 
stitute Gerome the Plutarch of painters 
— and more especially his " Cleopatra," 
the cunning ivory woman, 

traced about by jewels which outline, 

Fire-frame, and keep distinct perfections, lest they 
melt 

To soft smooth unity ere half their hold be felt ; 

Yet, o'er that white and wonder, a Soul's predom- 
inance 

I' the head so high and haught, except one thievish 
glance 

From back of oblong eye, intent to count the slain, 

— may be glad of a personal introduction, 
which, however, shall be shorter than a 
formula of Sir Charles Grandison's. The 
painter of " Cleopatra " and " The Death 
of Caesar " is a dark, energetic man, with 
quick black eyes set under a very broad 
forehead, and a triangular, top-shaped 
face, whose apex, the chin, is shadowed 
by an arching moustache. With his 
alert motions, his height and weight kept 
serviceably at a medium, his taste in 
dress plain and business - like, and a 
directness of manner so absolute that 
trifling with him is out of the question, 
Gerome is a man whom you would call 
a grave person even when he laughs ; 
but his sincerity, his reasonableness and 
mental superiority make him the best of 
traveling -companions. Only, whereas 
the others are going to Egypt in an ex- 
alted spirit of larkmg, the pencil-Plutarch 
is descending upon the land of Pharaoh 
with as fell a purpose as ever sent a 
Highland chieftain raiding upon the Low- 
lands : his artistic larder needs replen- 
ishing, and he is going after his milch 
cow. 

This expedition was so far a crisis with 
Gerome that he went out a black-haired 
man and returned perfectly gray. There 
is something memorable in the particular 
action that at once distinctly deprives 
one of one's youth : it is like a vigil of I 



arms, where a young knight leaves his 
sable locks upon the altar. 

All Europeans in Cairo behave pre- 
cisely alike : the mysterious Eastern 
charm runs away with all of them to- 
gether. Our Parisians, installed in the 
house of a rich French cook emeritus, 
had hardly disposed of their first grand 
nine-course dinner when they retired to 
dream, one and all, of the same plan. 
"For my part, I know very well what 1 
am going to do," said each to himself as 
he buttoned the mosquito-net of his own 
particular bed. "I shall get up at four 
o'clock, take a donkey and seek adven- 
tures until breakfast-time." And so ac- 
curately was every traveler bitten by the 
same maggot in the same place that they 
all had the pleasure of finding them- 
selves together, each on a donkey, a little 
before sunrise. 

The ex-cook's mansion forming almost 
the corner of the great native street of 
Cairo, the Muskee, the first tableau was 
naturally afforded by that finest of Cai- 
rene boulevards. The Muskee, with its 
shops and coffee-houses, is an Orient in 
itself, and he would be a stupid braggart 
who, after living in it for three years, 
should pretend to have seen all its in- 
teresting features. At the extremity of 
the Muskee a broad covered footway 
separates into two the quarter where the 
bazaars are grouped : turning to the left, 
the bazaar of the jewelers is reached ; to 
the right are the carpets and raiment, 
the slippers, harness and saddles. The 
first duty of inexperienced travelers is to 
load themselves down with cumbrous 
articles of purchase. Our caravan did 
not fail at the present emergency, and 
Saint Eloi himself could hardly have 
kept count of the bracelets, the neck- 
laces, the daggers and pistols, made very 
probably in Brussels, which the ardent 
Orientalists swept into their carpet-bags. 
The carved woodwork on the coffers and 
street-signs of the merchants attracted 
the admiration of every artist in the 
group, while the Persian rugs (many of 
which are sold in Cairo) seemed to them 
adorable enough for an artist to say his 
prayers upon, especially those with fan- 
tastic figures on white grounds. The 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GAROME THE PAINTER. 



193 



simple jewels prepared for the Fellah 
women were objects of eager research, 
partly on account of their broad statu- 
esque styles and partly on account of the 



singular manner of paying for them. In 
one dish of the scales is placed your 
chosen lot of trinkets, in the other your 
gold, and the equilibrium of the two 




'tfl/J< i/y^MM^-^il 



FATMA. (by J. L. GEROME.) 



forms the payment : in this sort of jew- 
elry the workmanship is valued at noth- 
ing at all. 

One of the party had the fortune to 
stumble on a pair of ancient bracelets 
13 



remarkable for their exquisite chasing : 
they were received afterward in France, 
in circles of taste, with open arms — even 
by those beauties whose rounded wrists 
were seemingly too slender to support 



194 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



the weight of forty centuries of graven- 
work. 

It is always a philosophical pleasure 
to spoil a good story, and we feel impel- 
led to give the sequel to the affair of the 
antique bracelets, one or both of which 
fell into the hands of Edmond About. 
About was accompanying Gerome with 
a heart as light and a wit as ready as in 
the old days of the Ecole Normale, when 
he used to write mock eulogies or com- 
bative arguments about Bossuet against 
young Hippolyte Taine and Francisque 
de Sarcey, or composed ridiculous tales 
destined to perish in an oblivion of laugh- 
ter amongst his talented circle of school- 
fellows. The catastrophe of the Egyp- 
tian bracelet has been betrayed to us 
through young Florent Heller, now in 
America — the secretary of About in Al- 
sace, and in his capacity of artist a pupil 
of Gerome's. On the return of the car- 
avan to Paris, About betook himself to 
a jeweler with his bracelet, meaning to 
have it cleaned and restored, and not a 
little proud of the possession of a gen- 
uine antique — the real antiques are so 
scarce ! The wise craftsman turned it 
over and about in his accomplished 
hands. A few turns, and he had twisted 
it into two pieces, revealing the existence 
of a screw in the middle. The novelist 
began to look supernally wise, for the 
ancient Egyptians have not generally 
been credited with knowing the principle 
of the screw. "Let me see," said the 
jeweler: "there are only the firms of 
Chose et Cie. and Messrs. Un Tel who 
make screws of that sort : I can tell you 
in a moment who fabricated this one." 
He examined it critically a minute, and 
decided : " This screw is the manufacture 
of Chose — not a doubt about it." The 
poor bracelet, hopelessly degraded by 
cold professional analysis, passed into 
strict retirement : it was no longer boast- 
ed of. About had been fancying it on the 
wrist of Cleopatra or of his own fancy- 
feigned Momie : it turned out to be only 
a masterpiece of modern counterfeiting, 
which the first Paris artisan was able to 
nail — or rather screw — to the counter. 

The day after the acquisition of the 
bracelet About formed an expedition to 



visit the mosques of Cairo, inviting Le- 
noir to accompany him. We have no 
intention of intruding on the privacy of 
all the members of the party : the Doc- 
teur, the Photographer, the Naturalist 
(familiarly called the Taxidermist or 
Empailleur'), the Hercules with the 
Buckskin Gloves, and the valetudinarian 
who suffered from a sunstroke at Se- 
nouhres, though they contributed in no- 
table degrees to the interest of the party, 
shall rest for us unnamed. But Lenoir, 
who has made the difficult plunge into 
publicity by means of the double spring- 
board of literary and artistic success, is 
fair prey for the general eye, and he who 
in his time has made so many outrage- 
ous caricatures of his fellows shall be 
lightly sketched by us. 

It is incredible how the atelier Gerome 
could spare him, for he was the life and 
soul of the rollicking band of Gerome's 
pupils, as he is now of the master's 
Egyptian caravan, where he forms the 
youngest member and the pet. He led 
all the studio games, superintended the 
alumni dinners, and delivered the ora- 
tions, on which occasions his quiet, sar- 
castic style, full of ready allusions and 
apt quotations, provoked those smiles that 
are more flattering than open laughter. 
Visitors to his studio remarked on the 
door a sketch in charcoal — Ci-git Paul- 
Marie Lenoir, the phrase usual on 
tombstones. Entering, an interior stuff- 
ed with artistic curiosities met the eye. 
Among the bric-a-brac one large bust, a 
female head and shoulder in the gran- 
diose, Michael-Angelesque style of the 
mysterious "Marcello," was sure to at- 
tract attention ; and the young artist, 
suddenly quitting his sarcastic manner, 
would say respectfully, "It was the gift 
of Marcello to my father." This intima- 
tion would probably strike the visitor 
dumb, for in the Bohemian world of the 
ateliers nothing could be more dignified 
than an acquaintance with a mythical 
lady of genius, who went under a mas- 
culine name, and who had been com- 
promised by the attentions of the em- 
peror. Other characteristics added to 
the immense repute of Lenoir among- 
the scholars : he was known to possess 



IX A CARAVAN WITH G A ROME THE PAINTER. 



195 



the personal friendship of the patron, 
Gerome himself; finally, what is never 
noxious to a character in a society of 
jolly beggars, he was reputed rich. He 
certainly was able to sport garments cut 



in an exaggerated English style, such as 
proclaimed him a creve, almost a goni- 
ineux ; and he never sold, or even fin- 
ished, a picture. 

Since his journey, however, Lenoir has 




thrown some of his fanciful conceptions 
into the market, and a few have found 
their way to America. The Persian lover 
liding up the doorsteps of his mistress's 
house to reach a flower aloft to her bal- 
cony, the Japanese ferry propelled by 



swarthy swimmers, the infant of Japan 
dragging a toy mammoth along the street 
by a gay ribbon, and the Hindoo ele- 
phant upright on its hind quarters for 
the amusement of the ladies of the zena- 
nah, have been familiarized here, either 



tpb 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GAROME THE PAINTER. 



in the original paintings or by means of 
prints. And surely that picture of his 
imported by Mr. Avery last winter — a 
view of the "Entrance to a Mosque," 
consisting entirely of the mass of assort- 
ed slippers left outside by the faithful — 
is the same which he made on this au- 
spicious tour of inspection, and of which 
he remarks, dissimulating the identity 
of the painter, "One of the band made a 
study in the mosque of El-Achraf. Our 
donkeys being left at the door, we expe- 
rienced for the first time the necessity 
of conforming to the rule which forbids 
one's shoes to follow their master into 
the sacred place. Nothing could be 
more drolly lugubrious than the battal- 
ion of our gaiters in battle array deject- 
edly waiting for us on the steps : they 
seemed to be envying us our luck of 
getting in." 

It was no contemptible privilege to ap- 
proach with Edmond About the jealous 
doors of the Mohammedan churches, for 
that brilliant author, who has never 
shown backwardness in availing him- 
self of courtly favor, had made use of 
his letters of introduction, and rode 
through Cairo with an escort of officers 
or cawas who glittered with gold, and 
displayed his pockets filled with imperial 
firmans whose authority made accessible 
the most impenetrable sanctuaries. 

In the case of the great mosque of the 
Mameluke sultan Hassan, the party, after 
going through an immense gallery which 
contained a station of armed sentries, 
were conducted by a sheikh to a dimin- 
utive door concealed in draperies, which 
gave access to the tomb-chamber of the 
dead sultan. This chamber is in fact the 
interior of the great dome — a dome which 
soars over all the edifices of Cairo like 
the head of a colossus. Within, there is 
a fearful majesty about this gigantic 
cover of a sepulchre : looking up into 
the air, the eye is dizzied with the pro- 
digious distance of the vault, which is 
decked with enormous pendentives and 
stalactites of sculpture, now in a state 
of dilapidation. Every day some mas- 
sive fragment of the decoration falls 
splintering upon the floor, like a thun- 
derbolt from the hiarhest zenith. Far 



from taking measures against the dan- 
ger, the Arabs accept as a favor these 
celestial aerolites, which have the prop- 
erty of sending straight to Paradise those 
of the faithful who have the good for- 
tune to be under them. But the Prank- 
ish intruders, who would receive no such 
benefit from a fortuitous pulverizing, were 
hurried out by the sheikh after a visit as 
brief as it was rare. 

The El-Hakem mosque, the most an- 
cient in Cairo, and now a ruin, the El- 
Azhar, called the Magnificent, and at 
once mosque, college and hospital, were 
successively visited ; but there are more 
than four hundred of the sacred edifices 
in Cairo, and the most enterprising trav- 
eler can hardly hope to see them all. 
What struck the infidel visitors was the 
perfect equality with which nobles and 
beggars worshiped together, and the 
animated attention with which they lis- 
tened to the dull, endless reading of the 
Koran from the vietiber or pulpit. The 
corpulent millionaires of Cairo do not 
snore in church, and the young men do 
not nod : Saint Paul would here have 
lost the occasion for one of his finest 
miracles. 

Theleast considerable of these mosques 
is a triumph of Saracenic grace. The 
mosque of Amru is not only as old as the 
year A. D. 640, and the cradle of Islam- 
ism in Egypt, but is furnished with a Fat 
Man's Misery, or unnaturally contracted 
passage. A pair of small columns near 
the entrance, cut out of a single bit of 
marble, and running together at the cap- 
itals and bases, are credited from time 
immemorial by pious Arabs with various 
engaging qualities, among others that of 
prolonging the lives of those who are 
able to pass between them without break- 
ing the ribs. The excursionists in a body 
took an early opportunity of submitting 
themselves to the test. Most of them, 
thanks to their youth and genteel slim- 
ness, slipped through like letters at the 
post, but there was one hero in the num- 
ber whose powerful bulk threatened to up- 
root the columns at each of his vigorous 
efforts. " He will pass !" — " He will not 
pass !" — ^" He will !" At each conjecture 
of his solicitous friends the Samson re- 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE FAINTER. 



197 




IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



doubled his energy. He passed, but at 
a terrible ransom. 

In another part of the same mosque 
the faithful are promised eternal felicity 
in case they can touch, after marching 
blindfold for some distance along a wall, 
a certain black square imbedded in it. 
The Franks had such uniform success in 
laying hand on the lucky stone that the 
sheikh in charge appeared to imbibe 
some doubt of their good faith — a doubt 
possibly not without foundation. Strange, 
juvenile people, which runs toward its 
eternal salvation in sack-races and games 
of hoodman-blind ! 

In leaving El-Barbouk, El-Achraf and 
their neighbor mosques it was impossible 
not to pause for a comprehensive survey 
of the whole group of edifices, a suburb- 
an settlement usually called the Valley 
of Tombs, but more properly the City of 
the Caliphs. The group of oval domes 
floating one above the other, the thread- 
ed minarets whose every stage is a mar- 
vel of sculpture, the golden Turkish em- 
blems forming a constellation of moons 
above the whole, the faultless Saracen 
grace of the general architecture — to 
which, here and there, cling the remains 
of old iridescent tile-work — all make up 
a composition surpassing the most elabo- 
rate effect of the most sumptuous theatre. 
The Valley of Tombs is decidedly one 
of the most pictorial scenes in the whole 
East. 

Our dilettanti regretfully quitted this 
beautiful dream of the Orient of Saladin 
and Haroun. Returning into the city, 
they passed the Tombs of the Mame- 
lukes, a collection of funereal monuments 
forming a succession to the Caliphs' Val- 
ley, and diminishing, without doing vio- 
lence to, the suite of fair Eastern forms 
which constitutes that radiant picture. 
The mausoleums, placed close together, 
and relieved against the mountain of 
Mokattam, present an aspect as pic- 
turesque in their kind as the bouquet of 
mosques. They are sheltered under cat- 
afalques of stone and sculptured wood- 
work, which struck some of the party as 
nearly analogous to Persian decorative 
styles. Might artists from Persia have 
executed these monuments, or at least 



been charged with their ornamentation ? 
It is possible enough. On the coverings 
of these tombs are small decorative 
cupolas remarkably like the peculiar 
tapering ogive of the Persian dome, 
which gencrrJly makes the outline of a 
mere triangle with rounded corners. 
These elegant sepulchres are thickly 
planted, and form a little special necrop- 
olis where one perceives a very select 
efflorescence of the best modern Orient- 
alism. Those cruel Mamelukes must 
have been at bottom persons of great 
distinction to be followed by sculptors so 
candidly effeminate, so amateurish of 
whatever was most aristocratic and fine 
in Arab art. Our fastidious Frenchmen 
sniffed in the tombs of the Mamelukes 
a vague odor, as of primeval Jockey 
Club : these fine mousquetaires of Islam, 
said they, must have been in their time 
collectors of pictures and connoisseurs 
of Japanese porcelain, like us ! 

They re-entered the city by the gate 
El-Karafah, having gone out by the Bab- 
el-Nasr, the Gate of Victory. Every- 
where was a new group, a new incident — 
combinations of figures, costumes, pic- 
ture-motives, which stung with the high- 
est ardor these enthusiastic young pen- 
cils, as yet unfleshed in the Orient. The 
Gate of Victory, with its two lofty square 
towers, had been the first study which 
Gerome had made on his earliest jour- 
ney to Egypt : the junior painter of the 
band felt it only a piece of faithful dis- 
cipleship to sacrifice there a piece of 
clean canvas. A rival attraction, how- 
ever, was the sacred bath and protecting 
palm tree of the mosque of Amru — the 
church of the more or less impassable 
pillars ; and the eager youths, defying 
the stings of the enemy, leaped outside 
their mosquito-nets in the French cook's 
house to pass a good part of the night 
in the lightest of costumes among their 
preparatives — their brushes, their can- 
vas-stretchers, their boxes and the little 
armory of colors contained in those shin- 
ing cartouches of sheet tin. 

These explorings and sketches were 
not all done at once : the photographer 
of the party was the only one who could 
pretend to get " instantaneous " impres- 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROmE THE PAINTER. 



199 



sions. The great day of the official visit 
to the mosques was finished up by About 
and his invited companions with a pres- 
entation to the ambassador from Persia, 
the economical notion having- occurred 



to them that it would be well enough to 
go somewhere with their embroidered 
guard of cawas where it would be worth 
the display. Nothing is more comical 
than the ceremonious turn given to after- 




noon calls in the East. The strangers 
passed the allotted time in receiving from 
a person they did not know a succession 
of compliments on the honor they con- 
ferred by using his house and consuming 
his provisions. They were stuffed with 



candies and inundated with coffee, none 
of which might be refused, and they 
pushed etiquette so far as to imitate those 
involuntary guttural noises which indicate 
repletion, and which in Oriental lands 
are accepted by your host as the most 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



delicate flattery. The Persian ministry 
was a dream of luxury, an edifice lined 
with porphyry and gold ; yet the most 
incongruous Westernisms intruded every- 
where to spoil the effect : vulgar mahog- 
any chairs were offered the visitors as an 
attention sure to please, and lithographs 
of Victoria and the shah in yellow-paint- 
ed frames were hung amongst pictures 
studded with pearl and precious metals. 
The Frenchmen accepted everything with 
bland admiration, and gave affable sa- 
lutes to the ambassador's sons, young 
men more Parisian than Persian, clothed 
by Dusautoy, and having nothing na- 
tional about them but the points of their 
tapering hats. Delighted with their own 
good manners, they were passing out, 
congratulating themselves on the effect 
they had made, when the darkness of a 
corridor caused them to rush ruinously 
into the stomach of a black giant who 
was guarding the harem. The watch- 
chains and jewels with which this living 
canopy was hung, the rings, necklaces 
and pendants which gave him the jing- 
ling effect of a Spanish mule, and the 
sabre as long as himself which he drag- 
ged at his side, all crashed in a dreadful 
manner at the shock ; but he salaamed 
politely, and the visitors receded with all 
haste from the forbidden ground. 

We are indebted entirely to lady travel- 
ers for accounts of the interior of harems. 
Yet the imprisonment in them of the native 
women is a condition greatly exaggerated 
in our impressions. If no man is allow- 
ed to enter, the ladies at least can go out 
at discretion, whether for a visit or for 
the bath, and they avail themselves large- 
ly of the liberty. 

It is unhappily evident that the most 
beautiful women in the East are those 
whom you do not see : those whom you 
do see are more singular than fair ; and 
those whom you are sorry to have seen 
are invariably the most free in proposing 
themselves for admiration. The orange- 
girls are as liberal of their charms as 
they were in England under the Merry 
Monarch, and certain quarters of Cairo 
are a perfect population of Nell Gwynns. 
The native names of these women are 
not very various. 



"Fatma! Fatma!" you may call at 
hazard in a street, and twenty Fatmas 
will start to life at the apertures of the 
carved windows, like the automata of so 
many cuckoo-clocks. In the whole col- 
lection some few may be worth the trouble 
of the rude trick. It was a Fatma whom 
the Co-lo-nel and his pupils decided to 
summon for an artistic sitting ; and it is 
Fatma whom the reader sees reproduced 
among these pages, with her strange and 
stony sphinx head. It has been very 
accurately copied on the wood, as well 
as the other sketches and photographs, 
by another disciple of the atelier Gerome, 
the good-natured and chirpy little Saint- 
Elme, the same whom his fellows of the 
studio, never at a loss for a graphic nick- 
name, called invariably the "Poulet." 

Educated only as pieces of display, 
like rare birds or parlor dogs, the Fat- 
mas of the East exhibit the most inno- 
cent gluttony and childishness. To 
dance well, sing well, drink well, smoke 
well and sleep well are the lessons of their 
school. The particular Fatma of Gerome, 
tall, young, majestic, dreamy, and of the 
purest Egyptian type, had the surplus 
qualities of drinking araki like a camel- 
driver and smoking like a foot-soldier. 
Two days in succession she brought her 
fine profile and her military accomplish- 
ments to the mansion of the ex-cook. 
She found herself not badly off, it was 
evident, for the artists had difficulty in 
convincing her that affairs of the greatest 
importance compelled them to renounce 
the pleasure of her society. She depart- 
ed finally with a stock of Paris baubles 
and a collection of backshish sufficient to 
eternalize in her heart the memory of 
the infidel painting-travelers. 

After a time, it must be confessed, 
even Cairo began to pall. The eternal 
rattle and fuss — the constant clattering 
turn of the kaleidoscope; — the fine pic- 
torial effect immediately covered or ef- 
faced by a new combination or a prosaic 
interference, — all this fatigued the artistic 
sense. The painters longed for scenes 
more penetrated with Egyptian repose. 
A day came finally when Lenoir was 
tired of sketching slippers at mosque 
doors, and even of painting — supreme 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 20l 




IN A CARA VAN WITH G^ROME THE PAINTER. 



luxury ! — in the reposing-room of the 
Turkish bath : it was somewhat exhaust- 
ing, too, to assist day by day in making 
the fortune of those irresistible merchants 
of the bazaars ; and he had his Persian 
carpets and Janizary armor made up into 
bales for transportation to Paris. 

The grand preliminary for a journey 
to the Desert and the Nile was the choice 
of some good honest thief to keep off the 
banditti of the plains. At the first sum- 
mons the garden of the ex-cook's house 
was filled with most abandoned-looking 
reprobates, who severally invited the 
travelers to confide to them, as drago- 
mans, their lives, liberty and fortunes. 
All shrieking at once, these estimable 
brigands offered the certificates of cha- 
racter they had torn from former vic- 
tims, and prayed to be engaged. With 
the assistance of friends and advisers the 
party succeeded in making a choice not 
too infelicitous : the gentlemanly tyrant 
whom they secured for donkey-master 
was named Hassahuee. They devoted 
a day to testing their animals and ex- 
amining their tents, set up for show un- 
der the sycamores of the Esbekiah : 
Lenoir, incorrigible sketcher, managed 
to snatch a journey and an etude among 
the Tombs of the Cahphs. The camel- 
drivers who took charge of the baggage 
in the expedition up the Nile, and after- 
ward in Arabia Petrea, were under the 
government of a very intelligent Syrian 
named Yusef Mussali. To do these 
dragomans justice, their conduct proved 
that they had nothing very brigandish 
about them but their looks. They were 
simply types, vivacious and various, of 
an artless and docile Arab people. 
Only that horrible marplot, the incor- 
rigible English tourist, could succeed, in 
the opinion of the Frenchmen, in twist- 
ing awry those gentle creatures by a sys- 
tematic course of injustice, inconsider- 
ateness and brutality. 

Crossing the river by the lively ferry 
at the island of Rudah, the caravan was 
quickly got in order by the impartial 
justice of Yusef Mussali, which express- 
ed itself in energetic blows administered 
impartially to the beasts and beast- 
drivers. The party contemplated the 



activity of that vigorous arm, cleared foi 
action by sleeves turned up to the shoul- 
der, and felt that they could repose in 
the authority of a member so prompt, so 
far-reaching and so decisive. Gizeh was 
soon reached, a village offering nothing 
remarkable but its ovens for chicken- 
hatching and its strategic position as the 
key of the Grand Pyramids. The valley 
of the Nile here offered a scene of arti- 
ficial culture quite creditable to the na- 
tional industry, but not so satisfactory to 
the fastidious artistic eye, which very 
quickly tires of the raw, uniform, metal- 
plated, unyielding green of agricultural 
improvement. 

One tableau, however, was afforded by 
these regions of immemorial husbandry. 
The irrigation of the country, in some 
localities where the banks were steeper 
and more cliff-like, was effected by that 
most poetical of watering-machines, the 
sakhyia. Remnant of the antique Egypt, 
the sakhyia is a primitive revolving pump, 
turned by a camel, an ass or an outland- 
ish-looking buffalo, who wears his horns 
in the fashion prescribed by the paintings 
in the ancient tombs. Two huge wheels, 
which form the water-works, keep low- 
ering and lifting a succession of buckets, 
an ever-turning rosary of russet-colored 
urns. The location of a sakhyia usually 
affords a combination of all that is Ori- 
entally picturesque in shapes and colors : 
there the artist may constantly find a 
foreground with broken banks, water, 
tufts of palm, animals and drivers, as 
well as infants and women who come 
with their jars in preference to dipping 
in the Nile itself. 

The great sycamore near the Pyramids, 
habitual resting-place for traveling en- 
campments, was leased by the caravan 
for three days, with right and privilege 
of tent-pitching. Here, under the super- 
intendence of the cook, they lived on 
potted meats dressed with desert sand, 
sanded bread, poultry au sable, and wine 
improved with a fine crusty flavor from 
the same condiment. Several watches 
among the party, visited by the pene- 
trating element, stopped as if by an en- 
chantment. The Pyramids of course 
were made a conquest. 



IN A CARAVAN WITH CA^dME THE PAINTER. 



203 



"Monsieur the count — Cawaga — forty 
centuries — Bonaparte — look down upon 
you — monsieur the baron — Bono Frati- 
zaoui" then with a personal application, 
"Good Arab — good backshish." It was 
a chorus to deafen the Sphinx. They 
visited the interior as well as the surface, 
and were touched by the dismantled state 
of the "Queen's Chamber," a boudoir 
bare of furniture or even wall-paper, and 
resembling nothing so much as a room 
of the Quartier Breda when one of the 
volatile inmates has lost her "things" 
by the cruel swoop of a sheriff's attach- 
ment. Poor queen ! said the Paris call- 
ers : her bedroom is not chargeable with 
much Benoiton extravagance. 

There is but little forage for the artist 
in the Pyramids when close at hand : 
their pictorial value is when seen in a 
silhouette, as from Gizeh. Then the 
mathematical relation of their lines and 
angles, suggestive as it is to science, is 
found to be also particularly satisfactory 
to the aesthetic eye. As for the Sphinx, 
it is the exemplar and gnomon of a pass- 
ed art, whose perfection and self-sufficing 
attainment may not be ignored by the 
most frivolous observer. It is not the 
magnificent vastness which alone causes 
this imperious effect : the face wears an 
expression entirely definite and voluntary 
— the look of beatitude, pointed with the 
sense of superiority and irony. 

The appetites which the tourists brought 
back from their climb ought to have been 
satisfactory to the forty centuries which 
have the office of surveying Frenchmen 
who encamp beneath the Pyramids. The 
same evening was enlivened and made 
almost archceological by the presence of 
an asp, which one of the camel-drivers 
had neatly intercepted. This astute- 
looking little reptile, the true coluber or 
asp of Cleopatra, and perhaps the law- 
ful descendant of that which drank from 
the queen's unsceptred arm, was not very 
frightful in appearance. The fang of the 
asp, however, is more venomous than 
that of some more hideous serpents, and 
its two horns, resembling the antennae 
of a beetle, give it a look of alertness 
and curiosity not at all calming to the 
nerves. The first night in the desert was 



further marked by the production of a 
wolf-trap, with which one of the younger 
pilgrims had encumbered his trunk, in 
the hope of seducing a jackal, or pos- 
sibly the jackal's master. The trap was 
set with a savory luncheon, but the jack- 
als were modest and did not call. 

The village of Sakkara, attained the 
day after leaving Gizeh, allowed the trav- 
elers a hunt after a quieter sort of game. 
They were there among the ruins of 
Memphis, and soon found themselves 
picking the bones of old burghers of 
that vanished city. The ghoul - like 

G took possession of two skulls, 

horribly decayed, which form to-day in 
his opinion the loveliest ornament in his 
museum at Chatou ; and Lenoir, with 
the instinct of a pearl-diver, detached 
from a female skull a row of beautiful 
teeth, almost as perfect and primitive as 
those which Eve set in the apple of 
Paradise. 

The same enterprising youth at Dachur 
had a success of gallantry by painting 
the fingers of the water-bearing maids 
with blue and yellow from his color-box. 
The mysterious sketches which he drew 
on their earthen jars were also viewed 
with the greatest favor. Tamieh, whose 
graceful oasis and buildings form the sub- 
ject of one of our engravings, was dis- 
tinguished by a stroke of sportsmanship 
on the part of Gerome, as lucky in its 
way as the finest stroke of his pencil. 
The bowers around the village have been 
selected for a residence by droves of 
wild boars, who form there a noisy and 
pestiferous republic. Gerome, whose 
present visit was not his first, can attach 
to Tamieh the most flattering recollec- 
tions of the chase, for he drew upon 
these outlaws the finest bead that the 
villagers had ever seen, and contributed 
partially to relieve them of the pests that 
ravaged their kitchen-gardens. Attend- 
ed by the son of the sheikh of Tamieh, 
an uncouth fantoccini gamboling in a 
brown night-shirt, he gave chase to a 
huge beast that had approached the en- 
campment. Three bullets in the shoulder 
and leg sent him rolling into the river to 
drown, whence he was fished up by the 
Arabs, streaming blood and Nile water. 



204 



IN A CARAVAN WITH G&RdME THE PAINTER. 



The sheikh's son startled the village with 
his cries of '' Alouf ! Aloiif ! Kalas ! 
Cawaga Ger6me kebir F' as he danced 
into the town at the head of the hunters, 
preceding the prey, which formed a heavy 
camel-load and weighed three hundred 
pounds. 

At Fidemine the young sheikh of the 
place visited the artists' encampment. 
He brought the ceremonial present, a 
plate of steaming rice seasoned with 
saffron and perforated with a few wither- 
ed drumsticks of poultry. 

" How long since," said Gerome to the 
youthful governor, "have you been vis- 
ited by Europeans ? Not many foreign- 
ers pass by here, to judge from appear- 
ances. Your town will not be improved 
with gas and English railroads until they 
have spread over all the world." 

The sheikh took the question serious- 
ly, as if Mohammed himself were cate- 
chising him. Consulting his own thoughts 
a minute, he answered studiously, "Five 
years since they came : my father was 
the shiekh of Fidemine then. I was 
younger than at present, but I have faith- 
fully kept the recollection." 

On calculating the date by certain de- 
tails, with the season of the year and the 
day of the month illumined by the pas- 
sage of the well-remembered travelers, 
it was found that the sheikh was allud- 
ing, without knowing it, to the second 
Egyptian tour of Gerome himself. 

After a pause of several minutes the 
Arab added : " My father described to 
me how, just five years before that again, 
strangers had come to our village and 
gone a-hunting. Some of those Euro- 
peans installed themselves opposite our 
houses, sitting down in front of small 
boxes, and seemed to forget everything 
in a kind of labor which was unknown 
to us." 

That uncomprehended craft was the 
art of oil-painting. The pilgrim absorb- 
ed before a box which he held on his 
knees beneath a broad umbrella was 
Gerome again, on his first journey, a pe- 
riodical comet due every five years. 

The province through which the artists 
were now passing was Fa'ium, one of the 
most patriarchal and primitive in the 



Nile valley. Its most important focus is 
the lake of Moeris and the town of Medi- 
net. The simple arrangement of the 
edifices, the fine sculptural forms of the 
land, and the unworldly simplicity of the 
manners make Medinet an artist's jewel. 
Gerome owes to Medinet-el-Faium one 
of his conceptions of greatest beauty, a 
picture stamped with the very seal of the 
East, and perfectly adapted to the mon- 
umental nobility of his taste. Of this 
picture, which has been in America, we 
are able to present an elaborate and 
sufficing wood-cut, one of Saint-Elme's 
most careful reproductions. 

Medinet was likewise the theatre of Le- 
noir's remarkable adventure in spoiling 
the Egyptians. Struck with the long, 
bridle-like ear-ornaments of a young 
village girl, the young amateur under- 
took to track her as she walked along 
balancing her water-jar. The damsel, 
conscious of being followed, suspiciously 
hastened her pace. Lenoir ambled on 
more vigorously. Sure now that the 
evil eye was bent on her, the maiden 
fled into the thickest of the bazaar of 
Medinet, the pitcher on her head rocking 
like a tower in an earthquake. Lenoir 
galloped, and Atalanta fled still faster. 
Nothing would have arrested her but 
what really did occur for that purpose — 
the loss of one of her slippers. Lenoir, 
picking up the sandal, offered it like a 
bouquet, his hand on his heart. The 
graces of Paris, always irresistible, made 
a hasty conquest of this primitive gazelle, 
and she ultimately gave him her ear, 
then her ear-drops, and finally the slip- 
pers whose treachery had led to her con- 
quest. Pressing the enormous galoches 
to his heart again, the artist suffered her 
to vanish with his backshish, retaining 
for his share the memory of a fleeting 
Grace and the slipper of a fleeting Cin- 
derella. 

Faium charmed our painters by its cha- 
racter, essentially gentle and patriarchal, 
its inhabitants, almost biblical, and the ' 
wild growths of its oasis, partially un- 
cultivated. It was the realization of a 
Paradise inhabited by the personce of a 
pastoral. 

(end of pakt first.) 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 205 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 

CONCLUDING PART. 




ALMEH. (FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL ETCHING BY J. L. GEROME.) 



THE camels of state provided by the 
khedive expressly for Gerome were 
awaiting him and his party at Suez to 
continue the excursion through the burn- 
ing deserts and wadys of Arabia Petrea. 
One member of the artist-band, attacked 
by painful symptoms of sunstroke at 
Senures, was longing to get back to Cai- 
ro and to the possibility of seeing a good 
doctor in that capital. The allotted days 
of the journey were passing. Yet Ge- 
rome and his fellow-painters, infatuated 
with the beautiful oasis of Fai'um, con- 
tinued to explore its canals and exam- 



ine its little towns as long as they could 
find the least excuse for so doing. It 
seemed to them like a page of pure Bible 
life fastened down upon the desert ; and 
they hesitated with luxurious reluctance 
to cross the Nile and face the robber- 
infested wilderness of the Red Sea. A 
rencounter almost worth a sunstroke to 
meet was the lucky chance of the travel- 
ers at Senures. 

Here for the first time they found the 
primitive, unsophisticated dancing-girls 
of the East. The circumstances and the 
company amongst which they met them 



206 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



supplied the most piquant relief, and the 
whole performance remains imprinted on 
the minds of Gerome and his friends as 
the perfection of impromptu farce. 

The primitive almeh whom Gerome 
represents in his etching is very different 
from the spoiled, cosmopolitan dancing- 
girls, contaminated with a hundred tricks 
learned from European travelers, who 
cheapen their exhibitions to the taste of 
staring Cockneys in Cairo. This is a 
Muse of the wilderness. Sullen and 
passionate by turns, she traces her plas- 
tic statuary for the eyes of rude men of 
the desert, swart Nubians, simple con- 
noisseurs from the cradle of the Nile. 
The negroid features, the heavy festoons 
into which she plaits her tresses, the 
sculptural way in which she can throw 
a drapery ov«r her head, the rude coins 
she decks herself with — so different from 
the half-crowns and shillings with which 
the Cairo beauty is proud to bedizen her- 
self — all seem strange, picturesque, re- 
mote, peculiar. Her head, scrupulously 
imitated in our engraving, is one of the 
very it^ studies in aquafortis which Ge- 
rome has ever given to the public. It 
attracted the attention, before he died, 
of Theophile Gautier, ever on the look- 
out for something bizarre and savage as 
a stimulus to his jaded appetite. Having 
found the etching in an exhibition ar- 
ranged for the profit of unfortunate art- 
ists, Gautier, in his own strenuous lan- 
guage, raved of the "eyes half shut, and 
as if blinded by the sun," the "heavy 
lips, liberal divan on which to lay a kiss," 
and the " cheeks polished like those of 
images in basalt." The simple strength 
of the execution, too, was much to his 
taste. "All these traits are indicated," 
he remarked, "with a few strokes of a 
swift, assured needle, which expresses 
more facts than all the patient toiling of 
the burin. It is a rough sketch on cop- 
perplate, quite as valuable as an original 
pencil-drawing : the biting of the aqua- 
fortis has nowise changed its character." 
Indeed, Gerome, granting to him his pro- 
nounced love for forms in repose, is an 
unequaled draughtsman, expressing with 
a light scatter of strokes a texture, a 
complexion or an arrested movement. 



"Go to the crayon-drawings by Raphael 
in the Louvre," he will sometimes say, 
"and see what directness of expression ! 
With the simplest and readiest curves he 
defines a bony articulation, the round 
hardness of an acting muscle or the 
swinging line of a relaxed one. Having 
the secrets of anatomy by heart, Raph- 
ael knows instantly whether there is soft 
flesh or hard bone under a piece of skin, 
and in the most definite way tries to find 
a stroke that will express at once the de- 
sired texture. There is no rubbing the 
drawing over to an even state of grit or 
wool : everywhere is tendon, skin or 
bone, defined in the plainest language." 
His own strokes and hatchings are much 
less inventive and varied than Raphael's, 
but they search in a similar way for the 
plain carriage of some truth, and, as his 
industrial motto seems to be Nulla dies 
sine lined, so is the lesson of his pencil 
Nulla linea sine aniind. — Of all which 
practice and theory the head we refer to 
is a good example, not easily obtained 
otherwhere than in our pages. 

Hasne, with her fine braids intermin- 
gled with threads of gold, with her eyes 
cast down to hide their liquid brightness, 
with her pendent coins and sweeping blue 
draperies, was the heroine of a fete which 
Gerome saw fit to give at Senures in hon- 
or of the civic authorities. Our expedi- 
tion, when approaching provincial towns, 
found it necessary to put on a good deal 
of state and to assume an almost pleni- 
potentiary importance. Thus, when the 
ditch-threaded fields and ruined tombs 
of Senures were reached, the tents were 
ostentatiously spread in an eligible spot, 
and the flag of France was allowed to 
unroll its colors to the respectful African 
breeze. These preliminaries arranged, 
the painters, their beasts hung about with 
glittering ornaments in the taste of the 
country, went solemnly to pay their re- 
gards to the sheikh. Arrived at the 
mayor's office of Senures, a young Arab 
in gorgeous raiment came forth to ap- 
prise the visitors that his sheikh, although' 
aware of the illustrious strangers' ap- 
proach, was obliged, together with his 
municipal council, to forego the pleasure 
of receiving them. Reasons of the last 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



207 



importance compelled this civic action. 
On the next day, however, the ediles 
would hasten to present to the strangers, 
on tlie thresholds of their own tents and 



under the shadow of the French flag, 
their profoundest homage. 

Not undelighted with this response, tlie 
Frenchmen withdrew ; but, while the 




eluer and more serious members of the 
troop prepared to regain their tents, the 
younger artists, willing to ride somewhere 
after the trouble of being mounted, de- 
sired their dragoman to take them to the 
dancers' quarter. There was Hasne, with 
a dozen of her friends, drinking araki 



among a crowd of well-dressed and 
courteous Arabs. The evening was spent 
over lessons in the softest LallaRookh 
phrases at the feet of these princesses, 
care being taken to sit out the well-dress- 
ed Arabs, who retired salaaming. 

Next day, for the reception of the 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



sheikh, a feast of splendor was arranged, 
ably combining the revels of Cleopatra 
with the discretions of Mabille. Paper 
lanterns were strung up in the largest 
tent, the chests and trunks were disposed 
like tiers and orchestra-seats in a theatre, 
a carpet folded in two made the imperial 
box allotted to Gerome and his staff, and 
the dragoman rolled a bran-new kiiffi 
round his skull-cap. The city council 
arrived in state : it was the very group 
of civil Arab gentlemen who had been 
surprised overnight in the courts of the 
dancing-women, and whom reasons of 
the highest municipal importance had 
kept from being at home to receive their 
visitors ! 

The nil adtnirari of Eastern charac- 
ter prevented these statesmen from being 
any way embarrassed as they met the 
amazed recognition of one after another 
of the French youths. Shirking a cere- 
monial observance in order to keep ap- 
pointments made with dancing-girls, and 
then being surprised in the act of drop- 
ping the national pocket handkerchief 
at the feet of these enchantresses, ap- 
peared to them the simplest thing in the 
world. So far from being abashed at 
having been seen in the exercise of their 
austere functions, the council met their 
European acquaintance with the air of 
congratulating them on the way in which 
the friendship had been formed, and they 
greeted with lofty Eastern languor the 
entrance of that charming Hasne with 
whom they had so frankly unbent the 
night before. 

Hasiie swept in, a surprising spectacle. 
Having been summoned to add to the 
pleasures of the entertainment by a 
display of her art, she had dressed for 
the part with a sense of its importance, 
and presented an aspect worthy of inter- 
national criticism. She was draped in a 
long blue robe bestarred with patines of 
bright gold : this was caught up at the 
girdle by fringes of embroidered silk in 
a style of the wildest innocence — or bra- 
vado. Her head was artistically wrap- 
ped in a yellow cloth, which formed the 
strangest of coiffures, combined as it was 
with innumerable slender tresses falling 
from under it to the shoulder, some of 



them caught together on the forehead 
with imperceptible clasps of gold. 

The metallic clamor of all her netted 
coins and pendants, the harsh cries with 
which she preluded her first steps, and 
the awful bray of her barbaric accom- 
panists, gave something ol a diabolic 
cast to the comedy. The travelers had 
never felt so far from home. At the first 
accords of the two-stringed viol with the 
darabitka, or earthen kettledrum, Hasne 
planted herself all at once in the middle 
of the tent. Nailed to her place by the 
feet, the dancer seemed to suffer, in her 
body, like a thrill of passion, the vibra- 
tions proceeding from the instruments 
Waves of motion rolled down the mus- 
cles of all her supple form from the neck 
to the ankles. As the music, from its 
first slow cadences, became brisker, the 
gestures of the dancer, her contortions 
and the convulsive movements of her 
limbs took on a more feverish and sav- 
age character. Raising her heavy lids, 
the velvet blackness of her eyes seemed 
suddenly furnished with vivid lightnings, . 
for the strangest sparks shot from them 
during the unintermitted shocks of the 
movement. Not only did the muscles 
of the torso and the limbs seem now one 
convulsive, complaining mass of love- 
tormented motion, but the flexible hips 
were made to move with incredible sup- 
pleness, and the soft bare feet, though 
never detached from the ground, were 
seen to be treading a measure by sym- 
pathetic movements of all the bones and 
of the arch of the insteps. Arrived at 
the climax of this rhythmic drama, the 
dancer sank shudderingly to her knees, 
and then executed kneeling a new series 
of figures, more strange, suggestive and 
picturesque than the first. Hasne had 
certainly the most faultless natural grace 
in seeming to undergo these nervous 
possessions : with the instinct of the true 
artist she controlled eveiy movement 
even when seemingly most abandoned 
to an irresistible convulsion, and never 
once betrayed the angularity of weak- 
ness and imperfection. For more than 
an hour she varied her unearthly postures 
with the limpid softness of a water-ser- 
pent joined to the grace of a gazelle. 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



209 



Apparently on this occasion inspired by 
the Africo - European expansion of her 
little world, by the promise of double 
bakshish and by the official assistance 
of the mayor and his suite, Hasne sur- 



passed herself. The raptures of the na- 
tive audience seemed to indicate some 
performance beyond the common. Or- 
anges, sweetmeats, money and araki 
were poured at her feet. Behind the 




MONASTERY ON MOUNT SINAI : THE AERIAL DOORWAY. 



guests a compressed mass of humanity, 
formed from the servants of the caravan 
and the friends of the musicians, was 
sweating and grilling, presenting a hun- 
dred vignettes of wild Arab character 
14 



surprised in its sincerest expression. Two 
camel-drivers in Gerome's service, en- 
tirely given over to the enjoyment of 
their senses, formed a group fit to illus- 
trate the Arabian Nij^hts. Both were 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE FAINTER. 



one-eyed, and both blind of the same 
side. Whether or no sympathy had 
brought them together, they were perch- 
ed side by side, and were loudly express- 
ing the effects of drink and beatitude ; 
but when Hasne, falling on the carpet 
like a wounded tigress, stretched and 
contorted her limbs with expiring efforts, 
they could contain themselves no longer. 
One driver suddenly seized in both his 
hands the head of the other, and shook 
it violently to the music with actual 
howls of delight : the other, while his 
head was thus used to beat time like a 
baton, yielded himself to the treatment 
with the most expressive spasms of pleas- 
ure. At length, just as the head, shaken 
more violently every minute, seemed 
about to be plucked quite off and hurled 
to the dancer like a rose, the two tur- 
bans, after tilting over the ear, unrolled 
themselves and fell into ruin, showing 
the mysterious tuft called "the Moham- 
med " — the crown which the true Moslem 
is forbidden to expose, and by which he 
will be lifted into Paradise. Schehere- 
zade herself would have been glad to 
introduce into her repertory these two 
irresistible figures, with their parallel 
blindness, with the scarlet immodesty of 
their hot shaved heads, with their em- 
braces, their raptures and their tipsiness. 
The others, expressing themselves in their 
several ways, were hardly less pleased. 
Hasne, contorted in a kind of spiral with 
her oranges at her feet, presented the 
superficial semblance of a cornucopia, 
or horn of plenty. 

Lenoir, in a spirit of mischievous curi- 
osity, approached her with a little neck- 
scarf, worth thirteen sous at home, such 
?.s the country-girls wear around their 
nut-brown necks on Sundays. At this 
temptation, Hasne very suddenly drop- 
ped her role of possessed Pythoness. 
Lenoir commencing to show the treasure 
by inches, she snatched it like a monkey, 
took possession of it, applied it to her 
neck, then over her head, and seemed 
about to flee lest it should be taken from 
her. When made to understand that 
the gaud was to be given her as bak- 
shish, she approached her benefactor 
with convulsions of contentment that 



resembled epilepsy, and for a while Le- 
noir seemed less likely to be thanked 
than bitten : floods of words escaped her, 
harsh, piercing and discordant. The 
dragoman gave up the task of translating 
her grateful Orientalisms, and Lenoir was 
obliged to retire with half his meed of 
thanks ungrasped by his understanding. 

More successful in his lingual transac- 
tions with the sheikh was Gerome, the 
Co-lo-nel of the party and chief Amphit- 
ryon of the feast. It is one of the bizarre 
accidents of M. Gerome's education that 
while ignorant, as all Frenchmen are, 
of the most widely-spoken of European 
tongues, and constrained to respond with 
" Helas ! non," to the first question put by 
every hopeful American visitor whether 
he speaks English, this conversationalist, 
so one-sided in his own studio, has but 
to go to the ends of the earth to find 
himself in easy communication with the 
people. Gerome speaks Arabic like a 
native. His adieus with the lord mayor 
of Senures were performed, then, with 
much grace, at becoming length, in suit- 
ably extravagant metaphors and with 
endless repetition. The esteem of the 
municipality was gained securely. The 
burgomasters retired. Hasne, for her 
part, made a much more popular and 
sensational exit than they, and rode roy- 
ally off on Gerome's biggest donkey, 
followed by the acclaims of all, from 
masters to lowest servants. 

Next morning at five a fire-cracker 
cackling was heard outside the tents, and 
there was Hasne, accompanied by a vo- 
ciferous chorus of friends and compan- 
ions. She explained that upon the rising 
of the sun she had experienced a desire 
to see her friends again. Hasne was 
quieted with a little coffee : a rather bril- 
liant matinee reception was achieved to 
the constant tune of "Ya kulum habibi 
kebir." The morning call would have 
been an unshadowed success had it not 
been for Hasne's unprincipled seduction 
of Jules. 

Jules was a wooden-headed jumping- 
jack, which Lenoir, as the baby of the 
troop, had claimed the privilege of bring- 
ing from home, with the vow of showing 
him every famous sight from France to 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



Persia. This hopeless little imbecile, 
usually suspended by an elastic to the 
neck of his patron's donkey, had regard- 
ed the wonders of travel with unmoved 
vacuity, had gazed from the summit of 



the Pyramids upon the French camp as 
stoically as the forty centuries themselves, 
and had been a perpetual solace to his 
protector by the consistency and obdu- 
racy of his dullness. Hasne saw him, 




t? 



attached him to her ears and her fore- 
head, and uttered sharp shrieks of joy. 
In the afternoon Lenoir made a color- 
study. Night came : Hasne and Jules 
had eloped. 

The efforts and emotions attendant on 



giving and composing the feast were now 
followed by sensations still more dra- 
matic, as the painter and his friends, 
threading the populace of actresses in 
their dens, undertook to bring to light 
the mystery. Their new but close rela- 



iN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



tions with the municipality were not un- 
needed in obtaining a separation of body, 
bed and board between this impression- 
able lady and her last alliance. Hasne 
lingered fondly around the camp for 
many days, and the only way by which 
the painters could obtain the privacy 
necessary for their studies was in fright- 
ening the damsel almost sick by photo- 
graphing her. Lenoir, consoled at the 
return of Jules, betook himself industri- 
ously to painting water - carriers and 
washing-women. One day, returning to 
camp, he saw a hideous " spectacle ser- 
pent," or naja, lying in the middle of 
the road engaged with its digestion after 
a hearty meal of chicken, and apparent- 
ly waiting for its doctor. The creature, 
having swollen around its prey' like a 
leech, was almost unable to stir, and 
presented the figure of a monstrous frog 
with the rudiment of a tail. It was kill- 
ed by the Arabs, its head literally whip- 
ped off with a switch, and the striped 
skin offered to the traveler. The golden 
tercEtis, the emblem worn on the forehead 
in so many Egyptian statues, is nothing 
else than a representation of this serpent, 
taken at its most dyspeptic or fully-gorged 
moment. 

Meantime, the visitation of sunstroke 
upon a cherished member of the party 
cast a gloom upon the whole band, and 
preparations were made for accompany- 
ing the invalid back to Cairo. Indeed, 
the further tracing up of the Nile was 
not a part of their plan : they proposed, 
returning by Medinet and Cairo, to push 
on to Suez, Akabah and the mysterious 
wilderness beyond. The final luncheon 
at Senures was embellished by the pres- 
ence of Hasne, who manifested a touch- 
ing sensibility at the thought of a sepa- 
ration. To try her with a new test, the 
Hercules of the expedition produced his 
celebrated buckskin gloves, adapted to 
the measure of a pair of hands that 
could have strangled a great many najas 
or urcEtises. The little paws of the dancer 
were quite lost in the great reddish-color- 
ed gauntlets, but the joy of Hasne was 
indescribable. She walked from tent to 
tent shrieking with happiness, and show- 
ing her small fists and enormous shields 



to every one. To reobtain the gloves it 
was necessary to have recourse to the 
Fabulist or longbow-puller of the caravan, 
who assured her that the buckskins were 
accursed and would bring ill-luck. Bak- 
shish, the universal healer of wounded 
hearts here below, consoled this suscep- 
tible female, and she saw the caravan 
start for Cairo with a good grace. 

The attentions and repose obtainable 
at the metropolis had a happy effect upon 
the invalid, who was soon able to ac- 
company his fellows in the further ex- 
plorations they chose to make among 
the streets and mosques of Cairo. Each 
painter, as he watched the incessant 
crowd and caught the varying silhouette 
of the groups of domes, wished that he 
had months to give for every day allot- 
ted to Cairo. But the East is compassed 
now-a-days at railroad speed, and it was 
the railway that hurried them off one 
brilliant morning to Suez in modern first- 
class carriages intended to hold six per- 
sons, but into .which eight were packed 
lest they should feel cold. 

The desert separating Suez from Cairo 
was formerly a real bugbear and very 
toilsome to cross, the camels sinking in 
the slippery sand to their knees. This 
sand is a white impalpable dust yielding 
to every wind, so that the domed hills of 
to-day give place to-morrow to an ab- 
solute plain. The color of the powder is 
the color of treachery : it varies with the 
wind and with the time of day. At early 
dawn the sands are rose-colored, with 
violet shadows ; sometimes at noon they 
are a plain of untinted snow ; in the 
short period of twilight, reflecting like 
metal plates the burning tones of the sun 
at his setting, the mountains of snov/ 
sometimes seem turned to mountains of 
fire. 

Our travelers found Suez full of pas- 
sengers making the transit to or from In- 
dia. The English hotel was overflow- 
ed, and, after obtaining the use of the 
saloon for bed-room, the painters dis- 
covered a dozen Britons snoring in cho- 
rus even in that retreat. The English- 
men were not very polite on being dis- 
turbed from their dreams ; and their ill 
grace aroused the most reprehensible 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEKOME THE PAINTER. 



213 














214 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



feelings of revenge in the Gallic bosom. 
The sleepers were quickly awakened to 
the fullest extent by finding the gas turn- 
ed on and burning at full head, while a 
group of fantastic beings in nightcaps 
and airy robes, sitting under white um- 
brellas with color-boxes in their laps, 
were making sketches of the rows of 
English boots, and all the while loudly 
discussing the eternal and glorious prin- 
ciples of art. Nor were the young men 
content with this mild victimization. 
Having given strict orders to the boot- 
black, they set at the door a single boot 
out of every English pair, the majority 
of which were of crude yellow leather : 
when these came back, all ebon and 
varnish, they were silently placed among 
their original mates, but not until the 
authors of the jest were far on their way. 
The superb blooded dromedaries which 
henceforth bore the party on their way 
were the special and graceful loan of the 
khedive. This gentleman, whom pro- 
longed residence at Paris has made a 
perfect European at will, was as well 
aware of Gerome's reputation and intel- 
lectual rank as any Frenchman of the 
boulevards. Nine immensely tall beasts, 
with mountains on their backs and no 
end of legs, did up their joints into com- 
pressed kneeling postures as the artists 
mounted, and shot up to a fearful alti- 
tude the moment they felt their loads in 
place. These quadrupedal giants were 
an appropriate offering from the viceroy's 
own stable to the painter who had done 
so much to make Egypt famous and 
bring its glories of landscape or history 
visibly before the eye of the world. Ge- 
rome and the Doctor and the Naturalist 
mounted with such grace and dignity as 
they could command. When it came 
to the turn of young Lenoir, he found 
that the most colossal of the nine had 
been derisively allotted to him. Now, 
Lenoir is not in his own person an 
overgrown man : already at Medinet, 
when the damsel of the large slippers 
offered him drink from her urn, it oc- 
curred to him that he could not play a 
very good Eliezer, so far as profile went, 
to her Rebekah. He is in fact construct- 
ed rather on the pattern allotted to Mr. 



Harry Foker by the author of Pendennis-, 
having a dark skin, short legs and an 
incorrigible grimace. He stood up by 
his camel a moment, measuring his 
length against its endless legs : then, as 
the brute knelt, after a brief space of 
serious meditation he recommended his 
soul, and immediately staggered up with 
the rising animal to a height superior to 
that of anything in the caravan — a pre- 
eminence which he guarded proudly for 
the rest of the expedition. 

The wilderness life "of the party, under 
the active dragomanship of Yussef Mus- 
sali the Syrian, soon became a triumph 
of organization. The commissariat was 
supplied with the usual preserved meats 
and an unusual assortment of choice 
wines. The personnel of the artist- 
troop had by this time, on that prin- 
ciple of natural selection which has ar- 
ranged the solar system, gravitated into 
a certain rank. Gerome and a given 
contingent of his friends formed the se- 
rious group. One of the pair of smaller 
tents was allotted to himself and closest 
comrades, and ran up the national tri- 
color whenever it camped : the other was 
for the rest of the " serious." Of the three 
large tents, one was the club-room and 
dormitory of the spirits unblessed with 
quiet, the sons of Belial who loved to 
dance all night round a table : this un- 
hallowed precinct was, unhappily for the 
interests of a quiet theory of existence, the 
popular one. Every night the "serious" 
philosophers came to the door and beg- 
ged to be admitted, but Lenoir always ex- 
acted a dear payment for this entrance. 
The five tents with their furniture, borne 
upon a total of twenty-seven camels and 
dromedaries, formed a train of very re- 
spectable magnitude. 

The Red Sea, as seen on the map, 
puts up two long arms at the top, much 
hke the horns of a snail. At the ex- 
tremity of one horn is the town of Suez : 
the corresponding town garnishing the 
other horn is Akabah. The land clip- 
ped between the two horns is a moun- 
tainous, irreclaimable wilderness, full of 
caiions or wadys, forming a sort of pe- 
ninsula as it extends deeply into the 
embrace of the two arms of the Red Sea. 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GENOME THE PAINTER. 



On this tongue of rocky land immemorial 
tradition has fixed the location of Mount 
Sinai. The accuracy of this attribution 
is being just now strongly combated by 
a learned and venerable British geog- 



rapher and traveler. If Beke's drifting 
of Sinai toward Arabia, quite to the east 
of Akabah, be right, it may have this of 
importance about it, that we may be com- 
pelled to relinquish Egypt as the land 




MONOLITHIC TEMPLE AT FETKA. 



from which the Jews escaped, and im- 
agine the Misraim which held them in 
bondage as some temporary dynasty 
which succeeded in reclaiming a part of 
Arabia Petrea from the Ishmaelites. 



The course through the wadys and 
along the shore of the Red Sea is slow 
and difficult. The caravan is thrown 
completely on its own resources, and one 
feels at last the close, savage, throttling 



it6 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



embrace of the Desert, like a snake, 
bound to kill if it may. Nature here is 
no friend to human life : she must be 
fought at every step. One day — it was 
in February, but hot as a furnace — the 
tents were drying after a storm, near 
Wady Sadr on the shore of the sea, and 
the artists were admiring the sausage- 
like red of the rain-washed mountains, 
when two human forms were seen on 
the horizon. Approaching, they were 
seen to be naked, wasted to skeletons, 
their eyes unnaturally large, and they 
made signs that they were dying of hun- 
ger. Fishermen of the Red Sea, they had 
lost their boat in the storm. The Co-lo- 
nel and the Doctor constituted themselves 
friendly rivals in the task of preserving 
these poor starved beings from death. 
They were served with judicious rations 
of food, which restored them little by 
little, and at last, shedding tears of grati- 
tude, they departed with a contribution 
of food, wine and spirits to try and find 
their way to Suez. 

The Mardi-Gras, February 25th, found 
the pilgrims bathing in the Fountain of 
Marah, whose corrosive salts pricked 
their skins and covered them with blis- 
ters. At home what gayeties and mask- 
ings, thought the lads, while we are 
smarting with the bitter penalties and 
laws of Sinai ! Determined not to be 
entirely conquered, a kind of Mardi- 
Gras procession was organized. The 
grave Syrian servants looked on in won- 
der as the young men, dressed in such 
travesty as their wardrobes aftbrded, ex- 
ecuted torchlight promenades, with pa- 
triotic songs and atelier jokes of the 
most respectable antiquity. 

The next wady, called Wady Schilla, 
surpassed all that they had heard of 
in the way of fantastic coloration : the 
rocks, all ochre or vermilion, with geo- 
logic strata of blue and green, seemed 
to be coarsely painted by a voluntary 
hand. A distribution of the painters 
was made to secure the memoranda of 
all the principal colors. Gerome under- 
took to copy the red and yellow cliffs, 
and treated their strange effects with a 
master hand : Lenoir accepted the blue, 
and his bedfellow the green. Several 



days were occupied in this singular scen- 
ic art. Then came Wady Mokatteb, the 
Written Valley ; Wady Faran, with its 
forests of virgin palm, whose untrim- 
med plumes swept the ground ; Wady 
Solaf; and finally Sinai, as the whole 
world calls it, with its rock-perched mon- 
astery. 

The convent is a great stronghold, a 
castle fully able to sustain, itself against 
the surrounding bandits. In the im- 
mense tower is fixed the elevated door- 
way, soaring over the ground at a pro- 
digious height, wherein provisions, vis- 
itors and materials are admitted, with 
the assistance of a basket, a rope, a pul- 
ley and a capstan worked by the fathers. 
At present, however, a modern door at 
the base of the tower is generally used. 
By this prosaic entrance the artists in- 
vaded the sanctuary. They were made 
welcome guests, and passed frequently, 
day after day, from their camp without 
the wallsto the warm, candid and intel- 
ligent hospitality within. The monks, 
dressed in the dignified robes of the 
Greek Church, were figures to strike the 
eye of a painter. Their superior, an old 
man with a splendid white beard tum- 
bling like a cataract of snow to his very 
girdle, took Gerome and his friends into 
high favor. They were made free of 
the library, where Lives of the Saints 
and other manuscripts enriched with the 
finest medieeval miniatures, the Evangels 
written by the emperor Theodosius, and 
many other books in grand old bindings, 
made the artists' mouths water with ap- 
preciation. In the enclosure is seen the 
place of the apparition of the Burning 
Bush, where visitors still approach with 
uncovered feet ; and on the hills hard 
by the place where the Law was deliver- 
ed to Moses, and the five holes at the 
base of Horeb where the miraculous 
fountain was opened. 

The holy men are held in the highest 
respect by all the robbers around them, 
who come up with their disputes for ar- 
bitration. In the same way the camel- 
drivers of the expedition, disputing about 
some trifle, were appeased as soon as the 
monks had spoken. 

The Sinai encampment concluded with 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



217 



a joyous ceremony, in which the monks 
joined with the best possible grace. It 
was the birthday of one of the caravan, 
the beloved Doctor, whose boot-soles 
had been worn to paper in the most ac 



tive researches among these rocks con- 
secrated as the milestones in the biog- 
raphy of the grand Jewish legislator. 
Six days beforehand the cook had been 
put upon his mettle and the happy day 




was graced bj a dmner fit foi Sardanap- 
alus. Two soups, four side-dishes, three 
roasts, salads, sweets and plenty of mus- 
tard, — it was the Frankest outrage upon 
the cuisine of quails and manna for which 
the place is traditional. Wines and studio- 



songs lubiicated the whole dmner, while 
the good fathers were present to grant 
absolution wherever necessary. The 
monks, who carefully cultivate the man- 
na-yielding plant, gave to each of their 
visitors on departure a little bag of man- 



2l8 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GENOME THE FAINTER. 



na and a tin tube filled with honey from 
Mount Sinai. They submitted with de- 
light their handsome faces to the pho- 
tographer of the party : the proofs were 
distributed to the good men when the 
artists made their call of farewell, and 
copies of the group which the reader 
sees among these pages are gazed at 
with complacency to-day by the originals 
in that rock-built nest so bare of inci- 
dents. 

More of the wearisome wadys, and 
then Akabah. This station, much to the 
artists' surprise, was full of interest and 
character, far beyond Suez. It is the 
depot where the troops of pilgrims to 
Mecca are provisioned ; and, with its sav- 
age sheikh and brigandish neighbors, 
affords quite a surfeit of adventure. The 
ceremonial feast offered to this robber- 
mayor was a most singular comedy, af- 
fording many a rueful laugh. 

The sheikh, whose name was Moham- 
med Gadd, was absent at the time of the 
caravan's arrival, being engaged, as his 
son very candidly expressed it, in rob- 
bing camels among the neighboring 
tribes. Meantime, the artists' kitchen- 
tent, as soon as it was set up, was visited 
by crowds of furiously-hungry people, in- 
cluding many estimable country sheikhs 
— characters who could only be treated 
with politeness, and whose meddling 
ways drove Achmet the cook almost mad 
with rage as he served them repeatedly 
with coffee and cognac. 

The respectable robber-sheikh came 
home late at night, when the rockets had 
all been fired and the paper lanterns 
hung up in his honor had burned out. 
He approached the little camp, and the 
dragoman, in a panic of apprehension, 
announced the veritable Mohammed 
Gadd, the most authentic, as he was the 
fattest and ugliest, of all the sheikhs. 

Gerome was extremely exasperated at 
this untimely visit. Awakened all of a 
sudden after a hard day's journey, he 
came out gloomy and lowering in a hasty 
toilet, and looked about for his guest ; 
but the sheikh was not to be seen. In 
fact, finding the principal tent deserted 
on his arrival, he had rolled off his mare 
and made with unfailinsr instinct for the 



kitchen. Here he called for everything 
that he took a fancy to, not disdaining 
to fall in line so as to pass to his numer- 
ous suite the coffee-cups and glasses 
which he demanded from Achmet. Ap- 
prised that the Co-lo-nel was ready to 
receive him, he started like a child 
caught in the jelly-closet, and was found 
hastily ensconced in the saloon-tent, his 
mouth full and a Rheims sponge-cake in 
his hand. 

"Tell him," said Gerome sharply to 
the dragoman, "that now I have seen 
him I shall be happy all the next four- 
and-twenty hours, and that, to begin im- 
mediately, I am going to go to bed." 

And with this honest growl the weary 
Co-lo-nel retired to his pavilion, leaving 
to his courier and young friends the task 
of serving out compliments and coffee : 
the last, to simplify the manoeuvre, Mo- 
hammed Gadd finished by swilling in 
large quantities out of the sugar-bowl. 

The sheikh departed with the consol- 
atory remark that he would call again. 
The artists expressed rapture, but pro- 
posed to be off at an early hour to avoid 
the proffered honor. In fifty minutes, 
however, there was heard a new and in- 
creased confusion. The faithful mayor 
had come to fulfill his promise, with a 
new band of provincial sheikhs, among 
whom was his brother. Sheikh Mak-Bul, 
who would accompany the artists to Petra. 
Poor Achmet, as the new demands for 
coffee began to fall upon his ear, raised 
his arms to Heaven and uttered cries of 
grief. 

The poor caravan left a large part of 
its provisions in the maws of these Aka- 
bah cormorants. The rest it distributed, 
on a precisely similar system, among the 
savage sheikhs whom it was Mak-Bul' 5 
business to introduce and to conciliate. 
Thus complimenting, complimented and 
robbed, they moved on amongst the ban- 
ditti to Petra. 

It was at three o'clock in the afternoon 
when, after a gradual ascent from the 
level of the sea that had lasted for days, 
the guides called a halt and pointed to 
the marvelous panorama. 

Petra, the city carved out of a single 
stone, like a cameo on a ring, was be- 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GEROME THE PAINTER. 



219 



fore them, encrusted upon the spurs of 
Mount Hor and its sateUites. From this 
point the monuments and constructions 
of the city could not be distinguished. 
A vague and general sense of artificial 
design could alone be traced in the mod- 
eling of the sweeping valleys and pre- 
cipitous ravines. Naturally fortified by 
its position on the mountain, the strategic 
importance which made the Romans un- 
dertake so elaborate a construction as 
Petra could be understood. The natural 
rock in which they worked out their pro- 
digious design is a sandstone, of a deep 
red color which cannot be represented 
in our engraving, rather friable in qual- 
ity, and sometimes displaying the swol- 
len boulder - forms of volcanic lavas. 
Petra, as a settlement of rock-dwellers 
or troglodytes, goes back to the earliest 
Bible times. It was the Romans, how- 
ever, who appreciated its position as a 
junction-point between Arabia, Egypt 
and India, and who chose to develop it 
into the fantastic, theatrical and alto- 
gether extraordinary city we see. 

Unhappily, the Romans, powerful as 
their hand was, did not always apply it 
to works of the best taste. The designs 
of the Petra monuments awakened but 
mediocre admiration from car company 
of artists. It is Roman architecture of 
the decline, surcharged with ornament, 
with a quantity of overweighted pedi- 
ments, flowering columns and needless 
niches ; one architectural motive shoul- 
dering away another, and the whole 
heaped together without system or con- 
trol. The backgrounds of Pompeii paint- 
ings, with their mad perspective and gid- 
dy porticoes and colonnades, are here re- 
peated in the solidity of stone. To show 
the melodramatic character of the whole 
construction, it may be mentioned that 
Petra is entered through a gloomy fissure, 
over which is thrown an arch like a 
bridge ; but it is a bridge which carries 
no road, which is inaccessible, which 
connects nothing, and which therefore 
can be nothing but a big and useless 
ornament. 

Even more puzzling is the temple, 
.which bursts upon you after a long 
scramble through dark and difficult pas- 



sages, cunningly illuminated with a nar- 
row beam of sparse sunshine. The ig- 
norant Arabs, who connect everything 
hereabouts with the past glories of Egypt, 
call this fa9ade by the name "Treasure 
of Pharaoh" — Kasneh Firun. It is in- 
tended, apparently, as the entrance to a 
roomy temple, but it gives access to noth- 
ing but a small, undefinable room with 
niches, too petty for a chapel and too 
large for a tomb. It is like a monu- 
ment in a church, and perhaps perpet- 
uates the fame of some Roman tax-col- 
lector or magistrate. It is two stories 
high, and the urn on the summit is much 
marked with bullets, the Arabs being 
firmly convinced that it holds enormous 
treasure, yet not having enterprise to at- 
tempt any more systematic exploration 
than an occasional shot at it. The real 
interest of this relic, as indeed of Petra 
in its entirety, is not in its design, but in 
the audacity of its construction : the tem- 
ple, like the whole city, is carved in the 
solid mountain — a monolith. 

Near the great theatre, which still 
curves its hemicycle of benches in a cup- 
like nook of the mountain, is an inscrip- 
tion in Greek, pointing to an antiquity 
much higher than the Roman conquest 
of Arabia by ^lius Gallus. Around the 
circumference of the theatre, too, just 
over the heads of the imaginary sitters, 
are chambers cut out in the rock, which, 
though taken by some savants to be a 
sort of theatrical boxes, are much more 
probably the rooms of the primitive 
cave-dwellers. 

The young impertinents of the band 
could not leave Petra without mending 
out the Greek and Roman inscriptioiis 
with additions entirely original. Al?o, 
they kindly wrote on the walls the names 
of passages and avenues, such as Wady 
Moiiffetard and Guignol Square ; ac- 
companying this nomenclature with en- 
ergetic profiles of sheikhs of the country 
who had obtained their esteem or notice, 
and in whose likenesses they took care 
to abstain from flattery. Four months 
later, at Damascus, Lenoir encountered 
a party of antiquarians who had been 
exceedingly baffled and irritated by these 
amended inscriptions, and he had the 



IN A CARAVAN WITH GAROME THE PAINTER. 



pleasure of inveighing strongly with 
them against the sacrilege of unscrupu- 
lous wits who would complicate the study 
of the past with gross or inappropriate 
restorations. 

The sortie from Petra might have been 
difficult but for the firmness and coolness 
of Gerome. The sheikh who accompa- 
nied them as a guard against the Bed- 
ouins chose to be dissatisfied with the 
amount of his recompense, and required 
a pay proportional to the grandeur of 
the viceregal dromedaries which carried 
and /f^ijc/ the party. When called upon 
to escort them out of the defile, he de- 
murred, objecting that his horse was not 
there. The Co-lo-nel, with a steady 
glance from his black eyes, ordered him 
imperatively to mount and escort the 
band : he grumblingly obeyed. The 
other Arabs accompanied the procession, 
muttering claims for payment. At last, 
Nossar, the sheikh of Petra, dismount- 
ed, and came up to Gerome lance in 
hand, asking for an increase of his pres- 
ent. The Co-lo-nel simply drew out his 
pocket-book, and smilingly showed it 
quite empty : to complete the allegory, 
Gerome took off his cloak and proffered 
it to the sheikh. Utterly confused as he 
was by this offer, the fellow was still dis- 
satisfied, and presently a young Arab, 
nephew to Sheikh Nossar, placed him- 
self in the way of the travelers, with a 
pistol pointed at the dragoman. Three 
of the Frenchmen thereupon showed 
their revolvers, and the cowardly ras- 
cal rode away, while the procession 
wound through the rocks in silence. 
The pile of stones limiting the boundary 
of Petra was reached, and the caravan 
was in another jurisdiction. By good 
judgment and abstinence from either 
threats or timidity the day was saved 
without bloodshed. The artists were free 
to continue their journey toward Jerusa- 
lem and Damascus. 



Such is the coolness which it often 
takes a brave man a whole lifetime to 
learn ! Gerome has not always been so 
forbearing. In this astute, ready, sober- 
headed man of the world, which of his 
old comrades of '48 would recognize the 
radical young demagogue who headed a 
deputation with a petition for abohshing 
marriage ? The self-command exhibited 
in his pointing at the brigands without 
firing does perhaps show a little more of 
the old spirit of self-forgetful courage, as 
when, in his early duel, he discharged 
his own pistol in the air, allowing the 
jealous husband to plant a bullet in his 
arm, where it still remains and causes a 
slight lameness of the member. Per- 
haps that little transaction came into his 
mind when, in the ravines of Petra, he 
showed the muzzle of his weapon to the 
nephew of Nossar without pulling the 
trigger. It is well to guard what was 
calm and courageous in our youth — the 
offspring of healthy nerves — and let what 
was unsound and visionary go. So Ge- 
rome has acquired, as the auxiliary of 
his remarkable artistic talent, a decent 
modicum of business tact. He married, 
and his choice was the daughter of a 
great picture -merchant, who since the 
union has taken care of his son-in-law's 
fortunes and found splendid markets for 
his ingenious pictures. And when trav- 
eling in Dreamland, as it were, in the 
land of sunrise and enchantment, Ge- 
rome does not scorn the assistance of the 
powers that be, but rides to his ideal 
right out of the viceroy's stable, on a 
dromedary twice as high as that which 
supports the ordinary tourist. A little 
sense, mixed in with the composition of 
genius, is a "mon'sus good thing," as our 
uncle the Major would say ; for it gets, 
instead of the cloud that is almost in 
shape of a camel, the royal beast himself 
in all his housings, and may calmly sur- 
vey the world from that eminence. 



COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 22 1 



WITH THE COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 

ON landing at Yokohama, M. de I struck by the animation of the place, 
Beauvoir and his companions were 1 and having secured quarters at a hotel, 
m 




rushed to the window to admire the cos- 
tumes, and the want of thein, in the ac- 
tive crowd that passed through the street. 



The Japanese appeared to be smaller 
than the Chinese, but their countenances 
were much more expressive of vivacity 



222 COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



and amiability. The women especially 
were charming, their ebony - black hair 
elegantly arranged in three stories with 
ornamental pins ; their faces smiling and 
rosy — painted a little, it is true — and their 
teeth, in some instances, stained or gilt. 
They trotted along upon small wooden 
shoes, and were wrapped in overcoats, 
with a thick band of scarlet or green 
cloth about their waists, tied in a large 
knot behind, sometimes a foot square 
and shaped like a cartridge-box. 

As for the men, according to their so- 
cial position they had costumes varying 
from zero up to half a dozen jackets 
or tight-fitting trousers, worn one over 
the other. Here comes an officer with 
a round hat of a lacquered stuff, upon 
which are painted in gilt the arms of the 
daimio in whose service he is. His car- 
riage is majestic : two very long sabres 
hang from his belt. He wears a coat 
with sleeves two feet and a half wide, 
and having an opening in the back 
which runs almost up to the shoulders, 
through which the sabres pass. On the 
back of this garment are embroidered 
the arms of his lord, hieroglyphics or 
flowers in red, yellow, blue or green, 
contained in a circle about a foot in di- 
ameter. From his belt hangs suspended 
the complicated apparatus of a smoker 
— a pipe with a metallic bowl about the 
size of a child's thimble, a tobacco-bag 
of leather-paper, with matches and other 
appliances. Every two or three minutes 
he fills his little pipe with a pinch of his 
tobacco, lights it, takes one or two whiffs, 
and the pipeful is smoked. On his feet 
he wears blue stockings, with a separate 
compartment for the great toe, and over 
these sandals of plaited straw, held on 
by two bands which are adroitly held by 
the great toe as though it were a thumb. 

Here comes the escort of some prince 
— mounted guards, covered with armor- 
ial embroideries, and each with two sa- 
bres. They ride on decorated saddles, 
shaking their reins, which are large 
scarfs of some blue stuff. The crowd 
divides before them, all the spectators 
prostrating themselves on the ground. 

The costumes are various. Many 
people wear only a pair of sandals, and 



a strip of white cloth about the loins. 
Many are tattooed from head to foot 
with all sorts of figures, dragons, war- 
riors, women, in the most brilliant colors, 
which stand out in striking relief on 
their yellow skins. Some carry "ka- 
gos" or " norimons," a sort of basket, 
which serves for the Japanese cab, and 
in which the traveler buries himself. 
Others push heavy chariots with solid 




A BETTO OR RUNNING GROOM. 

wheels, keeping time with the most in- 
credible cries. Then there are fruit- 
sellers, carpenters and mechanics of all 
kinds, clothed generally with only a 
short jacket of calico, on the back of 
which is painted in large Japanese cha- 
racters an inscription indicating either 
the trade of the wearer or the lord whose 
serf he is. 

The streets of Yokohama are wide and 
straight. Each house is built of wood, 
without an atom of paint, and is a real 
toy-house, a genuine Liliputian Swiss 
chalet, built with a taste, a nicety and a 
neatness which are admirable. The 
Japanese are wonderful workers in wood, 



COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



and it is a pleasure to see the roofs, so 
light and yet so strong, supported by 
walls which are made, like the side- 
scenes in a theatre, of thin strips of 
wood, over which are pasted sheets of 
a cottony, transparent paper. In the 
evenings, when the lanterns dispense 
their soft light round the inside of these 




INARAiA, A JAPANESE YOUNG WOMAN. 

white buildings, the spectator seems to be 
looking at a magic-lantern. During the 
daytime the sides of the houses are 
slipped out, as side-scenes are, and the 
house becomes only a roof resting on 
the four light corner posts, the whole in- 
terior being thus opened to the air. Ev- 
ery part of the house is exposed to view, 
and everything done in it can be seen, 
while behind it appear the charming 
verdure, the cascades and the diminutive 
plantations of the little gardens situated 
in the rear. 

The great luxury of the Japanese con- 
sists in their mats made of plaited straw. 
They are perfectly rectangular in shape, 
about three inches thick, and soft to the 



touch. They are never stepped on with 
shoes, since the Japanese go about their 
houses always barefooted. Of furniture 
they have next to nothmg : a small fur- 
nace in one corner, a closet made of 
side-scenes like the sides of the house, 
and intended to contain the mattresses, a 
small set of shelves on which are ar- 
ranged the lacquered plates for rice and 
fish, — this is all the furnishing for these 
houses, in which they live, as it were, in 
the open air. In the middle of each 
house are two articles of general use 
among all classes — the "chitat" and the 
"tobacco-bon ;" that is, a brazier and the 
box for tobacco. Being great tea-drink- 
ers, great smokers and great talkers, the 
Japanese pass their days around the 
brazier : there they can be seen in groups 
of seven or eight, seated on their heels 
around the tea-kettle. 

In every shop our travelers visited they 
were received with a distinction and po- 
liteness which surpassed even the pro- 
verbial manners of their native country. 
In walking through the city they passed 
through the street of baths. In Japan, 
where every one lives, as it were, in 
public, the costume of our first parents 
in no way shocks the sentiments of the 
people,"who in this matter may be con- 
sidered as still in the Golden Age. This 
street is filled with bath-houses, to which 
the population resort, many of them 
twice or thrice a day. Here all sexes, 
ages and conditions mingle, fifty to sixty 
at a time in each bath-house. The pass- 
er-by sees them crouched down or dan- 
cing on an inclined plane, surrounded by 
pyramids of small tubs made of copper 
and filled with hot water. Here they 
sprinkle and soap each other. Attracted 
by the sight of the travelers, they come 
to ask "the noble strangers" politely for 
a cigarette. 

A woman seller of dry goods invited 
the party to enter her shop and seai 
themselves upon the mats. This was 
for her a great honor, and as the party 
entered she saluted them by bowing until 
her forehead touched the floor, then offer- 
ing them tea in small cups, she brought 
out tobacco for their pipes, and present- 
ed lighted coals held between two chop- 



224 COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



sticks. " I cannot hope," writes the count, 
" to express to you all the elegance of this 
woman of the people in her slightest 
movements : her features expressed the 
most simple womanly affabihty as her 



habitual condition. Well, in whatever 
house you may enter you will be treated 
with the same distinction : we were almost 
stupefied to find it, and confessed that this 
people can rightly call us barbarians. I 




BRONZE STATUE OF DAIBOUTS AT KAMAKOUrA. 



have not seen a single fight or dispute in 
the streets : all the men, in saluting each 
other with profound bows, wear a smile 
upon their lips ; and when we desire to 
appear amiable we are awkward and ill- 



bred in comparison with these Japanese, 
who are gracious without thinking of 
being so. Among them a man who gives 
way to his anger, or shows it in his tone 
or words, is avoided by his kind as dnfit 



COUNT DE BEAU VOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



225 



for society. Thus, when at first our ple- 
nipotentiaries in the diplomatic confer- 
ences became animated, the Japanese 
said, ' Let us put off this matter for an- 
other day : we cannot treat with those 
who are not masters of themselves.' " 

For a trip into the country ponies 
were hired, each of which was accom- 




A YAKONINE (JAPANESE OFFICER). 

panied by a "betto" or groom, who ran 
by the side of the horse the whole way. 
The road ran between rice -fields, the 
frequent ditches between which were 
covered with small bridges of bamboo. 
The "betto" of the count was named 
"Aramado." During the whole of the 
journey he kept up on foot with the 
horse, warning him by a sharp cry of 
any difficult place in the road. At set- 
ting out, Aramado's costume was su- 
perb: a bright blue coat with immense 
sleeves, and a tight pair of pantaloons. 
As he ran through the rice-fields, his 
sleeves flying in, the wind, he looked like 
IS 



an enormous blue butterfly. Piece by 
piece, however, as he warmed up with 
his course, he took off his garments, 
until he was clothed in only a pair of 
stockings and his scarlet tattooing, rep- 
resenting a combat between a woman, 
some large birds and a serpent. The 
"betto" of the count's companion was 
even more singularly decorated. 
Though absolutely naked, he was 
clothed. His tattooing repre- 
sented a blue jacket with white 
buttons and red seams, with a 
coat -of- arms in scarlet in the 
middle of his back, and a pair 
of trousers in black and white 
squares. 

Ascending to high ground, the 
view became very fine. On the 
left, at a distance from the sea, 
rose the volcano "Vries," with 
clouds of smoke rolling from it ; 
on the right, Foosiyama (the 
sacred mountain — the "moun- 
tain without an equal"), its top 
covered with snow. This moun- 
tain dominates all Japan, and is 
revered as a divinity. The per- 
fect regularity of its cone shape 
is familiar to those of our readers 
who have examined any speci- 
mens of Japanese ware, since it 
is very frequently represented on 
all sorts of tttensils. Perhaps no 
people in the world are more 
sensitive to the beauties of Na- 
ture than the Japanese : every- 
where throughout the country 
where there is a fine view, or 
where a fine tree offers an opportunity 
for a retreat in the shade, even in the 
paths most unfrequented, will be found 
a tea-house, a light cabin with a thatched 
roof and paper sides, with soft mats 
spread round the brazier used for boiling 
tea or rice. Here there was one, where 
the daughters offered our travelers tea 
and rice in small cups, while their mother 
brought tobacco, and coals in the bra- 
zier. Other travelers stopped for refresh- 
ment, and here, as all along the road, 
the party was surprised at the politeness 
and amiability of the people they met. 
The route continued picturesque and 



2 26 COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



beautiful along the course of a brook 
with cascades, and through groups of 
trees and hedges of camellias, azaleas, 
and other plants in full flower. Finally, 
coming to the coast, after a ride along a 
fine beach the sacred isl- 
and of Inosima was reach- 
ed. This is an immense 
volcanic rock shaped like 
a gigantic mushroom. 
There are steps, but no 
roads, to ascend it, and it 
is filled with temples, to 
which crowds of native 
pilgrims resort carrying 
wallets and wearing 
cockle-shells. The priests ^-^ 

of the sanctuary dislike 
foreigners, so that the par- 
ty was struck with meet- 
ing, instead of the smiles 
of an hour before, the hos- 
tile faces of the shaved 
priests muttering prayers, 
with the expression of 
stupidity, insolence and 
laziness which comes from 
the conscious possession 
of an undisputed and un- 
deserved power. To the 
centre of the island runs 
a grotto over five hun- 
dred feet long, at the foot 
of which is an altar bril- 
liantly lighted and sur- 
rounded with the pious offerings of thou- 
sands of visitors. 

Returning to Yokohama, they visited 
on the way the temple of Pleasure near 
the city of Kamakoura. This is one of 
the largest temples in Japan, and is visit- 
ed yearly by thousands of pious pilgrims. 
Continuing their way through trimmed 
hedges of camellias and azaleas thirty 
feet high, they came to the bronze statue 
known as the Daibouts or Daibutz. This 
statue is fifty feet high, and represents 
Booddha sitting, in the Oriental manner, 
on a lotus. It is ninety-six feet in cir- 
cumference at the base, and is raised on 
a pedestal five or six feet high. The in- 
tention of the artist was to represent 
Booddha in Nirvana, or the state of utter 
annihilation of external consciousness 



which is to be gained only through ages 
of purification by transmigration. The 
attainment of this condition is the great 
promise held out to the faithful, and has 
for more than twenty centuries been the 




THE COLONEL OF THE ESCORT. 

guiding hope of countless millions of 
human beings. The face of the statue 
is of the Hindoo type, and, with the at- 
titude, is in perfect harmony with the 
artist's conception. All visitors agree 
that it is an exceptionally fine realization 
in art of a profoundly abstract religious 
conception. The small knobs upon the 
head are intended to represent the snails 
which, according to tradition, came to 
protect Booddha from the heat of the sun. 
The statue was made about six hundred 
years ago, being cast in sections, and 
joined so artistically that the seams are 
hardly to be seen. It is said that a tem- 
ple formerly enclosed it, but was destroy- 
ed by an earthquake. Being hollow, it 
has a temple inside of it which the party 
entered, and were offered by a priest for 



COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



227 



two cents a copy of the statue, which he 
guaranteed as a cure for all possible 
maladies, past, present or future. 

In the construction of their houses, 
the Japanese, unlike most buildeis, begin 
with the roof. This is built on the ground, 
and when framed is covered with small 
shingles about the size of two fingers, as 
thin as a sheet of paper. When it is 
finished they raise it on four corner- 
posts. The sides are then slipped in 
grooves, and the house is finished with- 
out the use of a single nail. The danger 
of earthquakes is a reason for not using 
more solid material. The mats furnish 
the scale on which the houses are con- 
structed. These mats are always made 
rectangular, measuring six feet by three : 
the houses, therefore, are constructed for 
six, twelve, eighteen or twenty-four mats, 
and when finished are masterpieces of 
neatness and elegance. 

The Tokaido is a long road which runs 
along the whole length of Niphon, the 
chief island of the empire, from Nan- 
gasaki, the south-western, to Hakodadi, 
the north-eastern extremity. On this 
road specimens of every class of Japan- 
ese society are met — princes and prin- 
cesses traveling in norimons ; pilgrims 
on their way to shrines ; tattooed porters 
bearing burdens hung from each end of 
a bamboo stick supported on the shoul- 
ders ; men and women of all ranks and 
conditions. The post-office is a most 
flourishing institution : the distribution 
of the letters is performed by men who 
go upon a trot, wear nothing to impede 
their course, and carry their letters tied 
in a bundle on a stick swung over the 
shoulder. Relays are stationed at every 
third village, and the distribution is car- 
ried on day and night. The Japanese 
are great letter-writers, sending polite 
congratulations to each other from one 
end of the empire to the other, simply 
from amiability, and without any pre- 
tence of business. It is considered a 
great accomplishment to write a good 
hand, as well as to express one's self 
elegantly. A well-written sentence is 
frequently admired almost like a work 
of art. 

Having secured a safe-passport and 



been furnished with a guard, the party 
set out for Yeddo. The escort consisted 
of ten "yakonines," wearing fiat, round 
hats of gilt lacquered ware on the top 
of the head, looking like dessert plates, 
two sabres passed through their girdles, 
and the backs of their coats embroidered 
with the arms of the Taikoon. Their 
pantaloons were large and made of col- 
ored silk, while on their feet they wore 
straw sandals and long spurs made of 
bronze. Wide scarfs served as reins for 
their horses, whose manes were cut 
short. At the gate of each town was a 
house decorated with flags, in which 
were seated four men writing the names 
of all passers, with the object and extent 
of their trip, and collecting the duties, 
which are laid upon everything. 

At Meiaski the party rested at a tea- 
house, where they were served by thirty- 
six young girls. The decorations of this 
house were wonders of art, it having 
just before served as a stopping-place 
for the Taikoon in one of his visits to 
the town. The garden in the rear was 
an admirable specimen of Japanese skill 
and taste in these matters. It seemed 
like a fairy park looked down upon from 
an eminence through a reversed opera- 
glass. Forests of small purple or dark- 
green trees stretched out their petty 
branches round ponds of red goldfish ; 
Liliputian paths wCund through pigmy 
lawns, crossing rills and bridges of turf 
large enough for the comfortable pas- 
sage of a rat ; while towers and summer- 
houses of proportionate size enlivened 
the landscape. 

In Yeddo the party stayed at the 
French legation, an immense square 
building, divided into corridors and 
chambers by some fifty double lines of 
such side-scenes as the Japanese use for 
the partitions and walls of their houses. 
Yeddo being filled with the nobility, 
who are hostile to the introduction of 
foreigners, it was injudicious to leave the 
legation without the escort. One of the 
first things done after their arrival at the 
capital was to visit the temple of Atango- 
Yahma, which stands on a mountain 
outside of the city. Having arrived at 
the top of the hill, a flight of a hundred 



228 



COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



granite steps led to a terrace presenting 
a view of the whole city, which looked 
like a park so large that the eye could 



one side of the city, and a river run& 
through it, while the undulations of the 
thirty hills upon which it is built give it 



not discern its limits. The sea washes I a unique appearance 





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I 



ONE OF THE GIANT IREES OF THE VALLEY OF CALAVERAS. 



Yeddo consists of three cities: "Siro," 
the palace of the Taikoon; "Soto-Siro," 
the palaces of the daimios; and"Midzi," 
the city for trade. Siro, which is about 
five miles in circumference, appears like 



an immense citadel surrounded with 
terraced lawns, that descend to lakes 
and circular canals. More than thirty 
bridges of granite unite this residence of 
the Taikoon with the city of the daimios. 



COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



229 



which contains more than three thousand 
palaces. Soto-Siro differs also from other 
Japanese cities in being built entirely of 
stone. There is not a single wooden 
'house in it. The general style of the 
architecture is simple and severe, each 
house being a large rectangle, built of 
white and black stones, and surrounded 
like a fortress with a ditch fed from a 
running stream. The mansions are the 
official residences of the daimios, who 
during the continuance of the feudal 
system were obliged to reside in them 
■one year out of every three when they 
came to Yeddo to pay their homage to 
the Taikoon. There were eighteen dai- 
mios of divine descent, three hundred 
and forty-four created by the Taikoons 
during the last two centuries, and nearly 
■eighty thousand "hattamothos," or great 
captains and knights. On their visits to 
Yeddo these daimios were accompanied 
by their harems, their official suites and 
their troops. Each of them tried to sur- 
round himself with as brilliant a cortege 
as possible, and brought with him from 
■eight to nine hundred persons in his 
train. It may be imagined what a dis- 
play of luxurious ostentation Yeddo 
afforded on these occasions, especially 
since it was the purpose of the Taikoon 
to stimulate each display, in order that 
"he should, by eclipsing all his vassals, 
maintain his ascendency over them. 

Perhaps no feudal system in Europe 
was ever more effective than that of 
Japan in its flourishing days. The land 
was partitioned out among the daimios, 
who organized its culture by their serfs. 
The crops that were raised the daimio 
bought at a price fixed by himself, and 
when the serfs required food they bought 
back from him such quantities as they 
needed at another price, fixed also by 
himself. The difference constituted the 
revenue of the daimios. At present 
many of the palaces in Soto-Siro are 
nearly deserted, and the number of res- 
ident daimios is by no means what it 
formerly was. Still, the streets are ani- 
Tiiated, and our party was greatly inter- 
ested in passing through them. The 
view in one of the streets passing from 
Soto-Siro to the trading portion of Yeddo 



was very striking. Rows of granite 
walls divided the parks of the palaces 
from the street, and immediately above 
them rose hedges from six to thirty or 
forty feet high, admirably trimmed, and 
formed of camellias, azaleas and laurels 
in full bloom, while the sacred birds, 
with their white plumage, made a scene 
as brilliant as anything in Fairyland. 
Passing along this road, the party met 
the escort of a prince. He was preced- 
ed by heralds dressed in blue and arm- 
ed with wooden swords to keep off the 
crowd. Then came a whole procession 
of soldiers, with falconers, damsels and 
pages, escorting the lacquered "nori- 
mon " carried by eight men, in which 
His Highness sat with his legs crossed 
and a sword sticking about two feet out 
of the window on each side. 

The trading city was full of life and 
bustle, while the streets were so neat that 
they looked more like the paths in a park 
than the thoroughfares of a busy city. 
Great precautions are taken against fire. 
At the chief points wooden towers are 
built, provided with bronze bells to sound 
the alarm. Almost every house has a 
pump arranged to work, and about fifty 
steps apart are hogsheads hooped with 
copper and filled with water. 

The Japanese government having 
granted to our party the privilege of 
visiting the garden of the imperial resi- 
dence, the opportunity was seized with 
avidity. This was only the third time 
that such a favor had been granted to 
Europeans. The garden was a splen- 
did specimen of Japanese skill and taste. 
There were walks, ponds filled with bril- 
liantly plumaged aquatic birds, trees 
with variously colored foliage, kiosques, 
tea-houses, appliances for hunting, for 
music and dancing — in short, everything 
to charm or amuse. 

Among the temples of Yeddo, the 
most striking was one called " The abode 
of thirty-three thousand three hundred 
and thirty -three divinities." Another, 
dedicated to the god of toothache, was 
remarkable for the rites practiced in it. 
The sufferer who seeks the agency of the 
god in his distress pays his contribution 
and receives a slip of paper. This he 



2^0 COUNT DE BEAUVOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA 



chews assiduously until it becomes in his 
mouth perfectly plastic, and then, rolling 
it into a ball between his fingers, he 
throws it at one of the pictures which 
hang suspended high on the wall. The 



skill of the Japanese enables them more 
generally to hit their target than our 
boys do when in country school-houses- 
they engage in a somewhat similar diver- 
sion, and the de\'out worshiper goes away- 




cured of the pam which brought him 
there. 

At the arsenal our party were astonish- 
ed to see the rifled cannon and guns 
made by the natives with machinery 
of their own construction. M. de Beau- 



voir mentions Da-Keda (or Takeda) as 
the designer. This ingenious officer 
had studied Dutch, and with the help- 
of a Dutch-Japanese and an English- 
Dutch dictionary had so mastered Bow- 
ditch's Navinitor as to be able to calcu- 



COUjVT DE beau voir in japan and CALIFORNIA. 



late longitude from an eclipse. Mr. 
Pumpelly, who was employed by the 
Japanese government to improve the 
working of their mines, had this Japan- 
ese gentleman attached to his suite, and 
tells this fact concerning him ; adding, 
" But this knowledge was purely mechan- 
ical, and mathematics from a philosoph- 
ical point of view was a new field to him, 
though when he took them up in this 
spirit he exhibited for the study a mental 
power which 1 almost envied him." 

Returning to Yokohama, the party by 
special permission was allowed to visit 
the sacred mountain Foosiyama, and 
the sacred city Hakoni, situated at its 
foot. With guides and an escort of ya- 
konines, and provided with passports, 
they set out on horseback along the 
Tokaido. Everywhere the country peo- 
ple received them with most amiable 
politeness, while the views of the coun- 
try were superb. The hills rose to 
mountains in the distance, while on the 
other hand the green valleys lay spread 
before the eye, with precipices and 
cascades, rivers and virgin forests, an- 
cient temples, rocks covered with ver- 
dure, and the line of the blue sea in the 
distance. The houses in the country 
have a slight covering of earth on the 
higher parts of the roofs, where lilies 
are planted, from which the oil is made 
that is used by the Japanese women in 
dressing their hair. This custom origi- 
nated in an edict by the Mikado for- 
bidding the use of the "sacred soil" for 
any plants except such as are useful, but 
giving permission to plant the lilies on 
the housetops, " since they give beauty 
to the hair of women, and will serve as 
tlie living hair of the paternal roof" 

From Hakoni the party passed on to 
the baths of Mionoska, the Baden-Bad- 
en of the Japanese aristocracy, a village 
built in a deep valley on the flank of a 
steep mountain, where the streets are 
flights of granite steps, and the houses, 
in the midst of cascades, seem piled on 
each other. The baths are sulphur ones, 
and here the peculiar want of conven- 
tionality common in Japan was again 
forced upon the attention of our trav- 
elers. The towels offered them after 



bathing were small sheets of a cottony 
paper. 

Having spent somewhat more than a 
month in Japan, our travelers embarked 
on the Colorado for San Francisco. The 
Colorado was the first ship placed upon 
the line between San Francisco and Ja- 
pan. Her beauty of model, the admi- 
rable appointments for the comfort of 
her passengers, and the fact that though 
she was a ship of four thousand tons her 
speed, averaging eleven miles an hour, 
was obtained with the consumption of 
only thirty-five tons of coal in twenty- 
four hours, were matters of surprise. In 
fact, says the count, "this result it is not 
possible to attain with our engines." 

In crossing the one hundred and 
eightieth degree of longitude, the dupli- 
cation of the day — it being for two days 
the third of June — called attention to the 
fact that the party had circumnavigated 
the world, and had seen one less sun- 
rise than those who had remained sta- 
tionary at home. The first sight of San 
Francisco, for our party so fresh from 
Japan, was one of disappointment. "The 
earth, the houses, the sky, all seemed 
the same color, while the city looked 
yel-low and mean. The hills surround- 
ing it seemed to be engaged in burying 
it under clouds of dust driven by the 
wind through the streets." The contrast 
with the fresh, beautiful green and fairy 
coasts of Japan, which had been so re- 
cently left, produced this impression. A 
visit to the theatre, however, changed 
this feeling. " In this hall there was an 
elegance, a brilliancy, the indescribable 
perfume of civilization, such as we had 
no idea of'.' 

Though in haste to return to France, 
our party lingered long enough to visit 
the Giant Trees, and before them stood 
" confounded." " Our most majestic oaks 
in France, the tallest firs of the Alps or 
the Pyrenees, the gum trees of Australia, 
all seem like dwarfs in their shade. 
Here they are, six hundred and twelve 
of them, in a single clump, rising like 
gigantic columns a hundred yards high." 
A few days were spent in a run through 
the mining country and to the valley of 



232 COUNT DE BEAU VOIR IN JAPAN AND CALIFORNIA. 



Calaveras, where is another group of 
giant trees, ninety in number, one of 
which furnished its bark for the Crystal 
I'alace. It is dead, but stands erect, and 



without the bark measures eighty-one 
feet round. 

The structures on the Pacific railroad 
also excited our travelers' admiration foi 




their lightness, solidity and strength. 
In the mining region of Nevada the pro- 
cess at the Blue Tent Mine was so new 
as to greatly surprise the party. This is 
a hydraulic mine, where a mountain- 
stream, brought down in pipes, is driv- 
en with a pressure of two hundred and 



seventy- five feet elevation against the 
mountain-side. So great is the force of 
the stream that a man struck by it would 
be killed instantly. The idea of using 
this force for mining purposes seemed to 
our party purely American in its bold- 
ness. Two or three men suffice for 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 



^11 



managing the operation, and in a day 
will wash down twenty-five hundred tons 
of gravel. Other methods of this kind, 
on a larger scale, have been able to wash 
twenty thousand tons in the same time. 
Of course the amount of work done 
varies with the conditions. Sometimes 
groups of petrified trees are uncovered, 
and at times the soil is so dense that it 
comes down in blocks too hard to be 
broken except by the use of powder. 
The gravel thus loosened is then carried 
to a canal, with mercury in troughs placed 



in the bottom, and the gold is absorbed 
by the mercury. Every month the work 
is stopped, and the amalgam gathered 
and the gold recovered by a chemical 
process. A brief visit to New Alma- 
den, where the second richest mercury- 
mines known are worked, then occupied 
the party. Returning to San Francisco, 
they crossed the Isthmus of Panama and 
proceeded to New York, and thence to 
France, thus happily completing a jour- 
ney round the world from east to west. 
Edward Howland. 




CONSTANTINOPLE. 



rHE regular approach to Constanti- 
nople is as rich in historic memories 
as in exquisite scenery. The Danube 
is such a "slow coach," owing to its im- 
peded navigation and its inferior steam- 
ers, that all the world takes passage by 
the Dardanelles ; though this can hardly 
have been the case with the Cockney 
traveler, who, when asked if he had seen 
the Dardanelles, replied, " Oh, to be sure 
— I breakfasted with them in Paris !" 
Before you enter this renowned strait 



the Trieste steamer carries y ftu over the 
route of the greatest of the apostles, right 
under Cyprus, close to Crete, perhaps in 
the teeth of that Levant hurricane, the 
Euroclydon. After sailing by the harbor 
of Agamemnon's fleet, you coast the low 
shore of Troy and see the mound com- 
memorating Achilles, delaying a mo- 
ment near these Dardanelles forts, 
whose immense guns have been so fa- 
mous. Twelve hours more of steaming 
and the most coveted city of Europe 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 



looms in sight ; as with all Oriental cit- 
ies distance lending enchantment to the 
view, and the outward splendor ill prepar- 



ing us for the squalor and wretchedness 
within. The glory of the scene is partly 
the blending of colors, partly the sur- 




A STREET SCENE. 



passing elegance of the tall minarets 
and majestic domes, partly the Arabic 
and Saracenic architecture of many a 
palace lining the blue waters ; but Na- 



ture herself is not wanting, and there are 
noble mountains for a background on 
the Asiatic shore. 

The Golden Horn, the inner harbor 



CONSTANTINOPLE 




236 



CONS TANTINOPLE. 



richly deserves its name. The com- 
merce of the world could be sheltered 
there, and the largest frigate land its 
crew on the solid street. Washed clean 
by the flowing "Sweet Waters," its banks 
are lined on one side with arsenals, bar- 
racks and hospitals, and dotted on the 
other with pavilions and palaces. On 
fine days a fleet of gayly-painted canoes 
will carry you in sight of the Greeks' 
quarters, the West End of Constantino- 
ple, past the palace of the sultan's moth- 
er, the famous burial-place of Eyoub and 
its mosque, until, the arm of the sea 
contracting, you gradually approach the 
former sultan's summer-house, the graves 
of his more renowned horses, and the 
marble kiosk where he was wont to smoke 
away many an hour, lulled by the sound 
of falling water. 

Along these sloping banks picnics are 
held the summer long, musical enter- 
tainments are given, the young Greeks 
dance, the fragrant coffee is sipped from 
eggshell cups, the time-kiUing " hubble- 
bubble " is smoked by rose-lipped niaid- 
ens, while gentlemen lose themselves 
over the stronger chibouque. 

Constantine showed genius in select- 
ing this spot for the imperial city. It is 
the bridge of two continents, the conflu- 
ence of two seas, the union-point of 
Grecian and Asiatic arts and manners. 
It towers over the Bosphorus on seven 
hills, each hill crowned by superb build- 
ings, which bear aloft the waning Cres- 
cent amidst masses of cypress and 
orange trees, numerous domes rising 
over baths and mosques, the flags of all 
nations floating around, the whitest of 
minarets piercing the heavens, the mix- 
ture of traffic and pleasure forming a far 
richer scene than Rome can ever have 
offered. 

But the enchantment vanishes as you 
draw near. Mouldering city walls, over- 
grown with the rank weeds of many cen- 
turies, tell the story of twenty-seven sieges 
and three captures : vast squares are pass- 
ed with naked chimneys marking where 
extensive conflagrations have been, and 
the immense cemeteries are filled with 
half-ruined monuments. The Turk nev- 
er repairs : a bending minaret, a cracked 



dome, a broken window, a leaning wall, 
a yawning grave, provokes no notice. 
Everywhere decay stares one in the face. 
Many a Mussulman feels it to be the 
national doom. Often the streets are 
cumbered with ruins. Often the sacred 
cemeteries or the " Sweet Waters " betray 
the fallen turbans of some gilded tomb. 
What a type of the Ottoman empire ! 
How visibly is life ebbing away from its 
unburied corpse ! How that fatalism 
which is the backbone of its faith pledges 
the dissolution of an empire which no 
foreign powers will again combine to 
uphold ! 

So I believe ; and yet I admire many 
traits in this city's life : its honesty, for 
instance. Warrington Smith bought 
some goods of a Turkish merchant for 
seventy-five piasters. Such was the 
price, but the Mussulman had expected 
to be beaten down half; so when he de- 
livered the bundle he returned the pieces 
he had intended to deduct from the price. 
No mosque has more minarets than that 
of Achmet ; but more imposing than its 
architectural grandeur is that famous 
gallery where a fabulous amount of plate 
and jewels has been deposited for safe- 
keeping by families leaving the city, 
some of whom have fallen victims to 
the cholera or plague. No iron vault 
encloses this uncounted heap of treasure, 
no combination-lock secures its door, no 
sleepless sentinel forbids access. Noth- 
ing but general honesty guards it from 
needy sultans or famished revolutionists. 
At the mosque Suleiman I found a small- 
er illustration of the same hardy virtue. 
The door was open, the shrine deserted : 
there was no one to betray the sexton if 
he took my bribe. I offered four times 
what would have been "open sesame" 
to any Christian church, and was refused. 
I honored that poor sexton, and thought 
better of human nature. 

Constantinople is the most temperate 
capital of its size in the world. Spend- 
ing day after day in the open air, wan- 
dering among the common folk, having 
at one time several people in my employ, 
even in the biting air before daylight 1 
never found any Turk drinking stronger 
beverage than coffee. But that is noth- 



COA'S TANTINOPLE. 



237 



ing to their great annual fast. During 
the Ramadan, which lasts a whole 
month, from sunrise to sunset the pant- 
ing boatman, the heavy-laden porter 
will touch nothing like food, not even 
tobacco, and no drink whatever ; and 
at sundown will make up for this absti- 
nrnce not by a drunken carouse, but by 



a larger dish of pilau and a longer smoke 
of Latakia. To be sure, temperance is 
a part of the Turk's religion, but is it 
not of ours ? And that religion — an im- 
posture as we call it — has something very 
real in its worship at four in the morning 
the year round, its indifference to "In- 
fidel" gaze, the heartiness of all its ob- 




DANCING DERVISHES. 



scrvances, the severity of its daily self^ 
denials. Often have 1 found the shop 
entirely open while the shopman was at 
his prayers, and I have taken up the 
goods to see if anybody would remon- 
strate, and laid them down again without 
anybody's interference. And how often 
have I watched the thin-clad boatman 
kneeling in prayer on the wet sand or in 
drizzling rain, "the world forgetting, by 



the world forgot" ! To be sure, there is 
less of this outward piety at Constan- 
tinople than where Christians are less 
common, but it is a character of the re- 
ligion not to mind being sneered at, to 
feel sustained by a divine sanction, and 
lifted far above the criticism of men by 
the favor of Heaven. 

Hospitality is another striking feature 
of the Moslem faith, and belongs to these 



CONS TANTIXOPLE. 



238 

patriiirchal lands. Even the meanest I every stranger in its khan; fugitives 
village provides a few days' shelter for | from every nation are protected by en- 



,1 II' liiiiiiiiii iR4^|pi|ii'iiiPiVi'fiiriiii!i \\4\\\\ 




THE GRAND BAZAAR. 



tering its territory ; every pasha invites 
the traveler to taste his coffee and smoke 
his tobacco, wishing him a prosperous 
journey and offering him government 
protection. And if this does not mean 



much, it is exceedingly soothing to a 
spirit chafed by disappointment, fatigue, 
excessive heat, the ever- besetting ver- 
min. It gilds the chain if no more. 
The dervishes I take to be an emblem 



CONSTANTINOPLE. 



of Mohammedanism. Once the inspi- 
ration of the Faithful, their decay of 
fervor is apparent enough. Their col- 
leges are sometimes deserted, and deser- 
tion in Turkey means ruin. Still, their 
exercises are worth looking in upon any 
Friday noon after the mosque service. 
The Whirling and the Howling saints 
are not altogether unlike. After some 
readings or recitations from the Koran, 
performed by a circle of wild-looking 
men, some of them exceedingly old and 
some evidently insane, comes amongthe 
Whirlers a waltz, each performer turning 
on his own axis, some of them hundreds 
of times, without getting dizzy or falling 
from fatigue. The Howlers, on the other 
hand, shout the name of Allah ever fast- 
er and louder as the music gets more up- 
roarious, until it becomes nothing better 
than the bellowing of a hound : then 
two or three make a dive at the bare 
walls, striking them again and again 
with the naked head, until somebody 
seizes the frenzied fanatics and lays 
them, just breathing, on their backs. 
Running daggers through the cheek is 
still done, but rarely, because the heart 
of a ferocious superstition is becoming 
death-c!iilled, its weekly service is fossil- 
izing into a ceremony. The only mys- 
tery is why an iron skewer thrust through 
and through the mouth should do no 
harm — the butting of one's head against 
a marble block leave any brains. It 
must be that the excitement sustains the 
system — that fervor of feeling makes up 
for the injury done to the frame. 

I have spoken of the shops. They 
are funny little boxes, with one half of 
the cover turned up, the other half laid 
down as a counter. The purchaser 
stands outside, the merchant squats with- 
in. No goods are made a show of; there 
seems to be no anxiety to sell ; no anger 
at having everything turned topsy-turvy ; 
no offence at an offer of just half the 
asking price. The bazaars are collec- 
tions of shopkeepers in some particular 
■ branch — gloomy sheds, often odorous, 
j^^enerally dingy, crowded and stupid. 
The number of tobacco-pipe merchants 
-and manufacturers amazes one at Con- 
stantinople as at Damascus. An amber 



mouthpiece often costs hundreds of dol- 
lars : the long cherry t ibe is beautifully 
wrought in gay silks, and jewels often 
glitter along the sides, because the pasha 
expects to pass his pipe round among 
his visitors, and has no better means of 
displaying his wealth. His wife cannot 
receive strangers and make her parlor a 
museum, because the harem is forbidden 
ground : her slippers outside the door 
prevent even her husband's entrance ; 
and most of his leisure he is glad to 
spend- anywhere else than in such mo- 
notonous stupor. A genuine Turk sees 
hardly any Turkish ladies : he never 
beholds his wife till after marriage, and 
does not commonly marry more than 
one, unless he is some grand official who 
is expected to live in style. He never 
alludes to his family in public, or ex- 
pects it to be alluded to : to ask after 
madame's health would be the worst 
insult. The French ambassador's wife 
succeeded admirably when she present- 
ed some silks to Mrs. Redschid Pasha 
through the prime minister, by saying, 
" Please accept these, sir : you will know 
how to use them." 

Among the antiquities are some cis- 
terns which are perfectly gigantic. That 
of the "thousand-and-one columns," ex- 
aggerated from a quarter of that number, 
would alone supply the city with water 
through a year's -siege, but it is now a 
silk-factory, exceedingly cool in summer, 
and as decidedly unhealthy. It has play- 
ed some part in politics by shelteiing 
those whom a change of dynasty put in 
danger of the bowstring. In another of 
these cisterns (perhaps an abandoned 
quarry) there is water enough to float a 
boat ; and lives have sometimes been 
lost in its dark recesses, about whose ex- 
tent there seemed to be some mystery. 

No other city has anything like such 
burial-grounds for immensity. The dea d 
actually octupy more ground than the 
living, and are never encroached upon 
by streets .or buildings. Huge forests of 
grand old cypresses cover miUions of 
marble monuments extending back foui 
hundred years. Fortunately, the ground 
is not lost to the public, as the citizens 
have no dread of the cemetery, and the 



24c 



CONS TA NTINOPL E. 




MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA. 



gayety of its decorations, as well as the 
beauty of its position, makes it a precious 
breathing-place for the city. And there 
is something noble in the idea of per- 
fect repose — that even the beggar rests 
immovably until the judgment trump, 
sung to by innumerable birds, cheered 
by the play of children, greeted, so long 
as any friend survives, with occasional 
flowers. 

The solitary story of Turkish super- 
stition which reached my ears was of 
a dervish who had hid himself in a sul- 
tan's tomb in the Eyoub cemetery, and 
who cried out "Water! water!" as a 
procession marched by. He meant to 
practice on pious credulity, and secure a 
grant of money for prayers over the 
dead. But Mahmoud's successor . was 



in the procession, and snuffed up the 
nonsense at once : " He wants water, 
does he ? Well, give him the Bosphorus, 
then." So the tomb was opened, and 
soon the concealed dervish was swim- 
ming for life in the cold bath he had so 
unexpectedly earned. 

There is a legend of the capture of 
the city by the Mussulmans still current 
and still credited. A priest was engaged 
in his morning devotions before the high 
altar of Saint Sophia when the fierce 
shouts of the bloodthirsty conquerors 
drove him to a side-altar, where he car- 
ried the sacred vessels and continued 
the service. As they drew near the walls 
opened and he disappeared, leaving a 
promise to return the twenty-fourth day 
of May, 1864, and complete the un- 



IVANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



241 



tinished sacrifice on the grand altar of 
Justinian. 

The gentleman failed for some reason 
to keep his appointment. Moslem wor- 
ship goes on still under that Christian 
dome ; the Koran is read there instead 
of the Gospels ; prayer goes up daily in 
the name of the Arabian prophet, in- 
stead of the Nazarene. But I have faith 
he will yet come. The Russian ava- 
lanche every year draws nearer to Con- 
stantinople. The czar's hand is out- 
stretched to seize this key of the Medi- 
terranean. Through tlie weakness of 
France and the apathy of England he 



is certain to supply his most urgent want 
— is bound to re-establish his Church at 
its ancient fountain-head — is summoned 
to redeem the True Faith from the stain 
of four centuries of servitude. It is only 
a question of time. Recent reforms in 
Turkey have chilled the people's faith ; 
debts have accumulated upon the pal- 
sied government's hands ; the fanaticism 
which was its life has grown cold as a 
tombstone ; the mouldering graves which 
crowd upon the Hving in the imperial 
city seem to cry aloud, " Dust unto dust !" 
F. W. Holland. 




WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



THE sun was sinking, and -the sur- 
rounding hills were steeped in the 
richest purple, when I joined the throng 
pouring into the city of Jerusalem- by 
the Damascus gate. Evidently I was 
an object of curious speculation to the 
groups o{ fellahin as I passed within the 
gate, a natural result of my being un- 
attended and yet a decided Anglo-Saxon. 
My only traveling companion was the 
mule which bore me, and whose persist- 
16 ■ 



ent crawl was not accelerated even by 
the immediate prospect of fodder and 
rest. My naturally fair complexion had 
become tanned by exposure, and my dark 
cloth suit had arrived at the shade tech- 
nically called pepper-and-salt, through 
the prolific dust encountered upon the 
road from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Tourists 
are always in a party and accompanied 
by attendants. I bore all the appear- 
ance of a tourist, and yet was unattend- 



242 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



ed : it therefore became every one's busi- 
ness to find out wlio I was, whither I 
was going and whence I had come ; but 
I passed through the gossiping crowd 
with the calm composure of my country- 
men, and left the fellahin to establish 
my nationality and rank to their own 
satisfaction. To be without attendants 
in the East is to lose prestige, but then 
prestige is a perpetual and an intoler- 
able burden It was better to be master 
without prestige than to be the servant 
of a dragoman with prestige. If you 
wish to travel e7t gratid seigneur, you 
have but to sign a contract and deliver 
your purse and your person into the 
hands of a dragoman. He will smooth 
away all difficulties and asperities ; he 
will be the mediator between "Your Ex- 
cellency" and all obstacles; you need 
have no care as to what you shall eat, 
where you will sleep or what you shall 
pay. The dragoman protects you from 
the rapacity of others, but his regard for 
his own interest is generous in the ex- 
treme. He will answer every possible 
question that may be innocently put 
to him, and his invention is boundless. 
But once in his hands you will enjoy the 
luxurious slavery of a prince, for you 
belong to him and he nurses you with 
maternal solicitude. I had no officious 
kawass to announce my coming in, and 
I had no thieving meki to delay my 
going out. The trip from Jaffa to Jeru- 
salem had been almost without incident, 
and the journeys by both routes — Beth- 
horon and Gibeon, and by Ramleh — 
have been often described. In the East 
the roads are, as a rule, optional and im- 
aginary, being simply magnified sheep- 
walks, although to Nazeef Pasha, the 
recently-recalled governor of Jerusalem, 
must be awarded the credit of having 
established a turnpike-road between Jaf- 
fa and Jerusalem on the ancient route 
repaired by Solomon. I allowed my 
beast to take his own course and creep 
along, hoping to avoid the bands of en- 
thusiastic tourists which flock along the 
road to Jerusalem. I wandered through a 
series of groups of fellahin, strange fellow- 
travelers, but full of interest ; of Arme- 
nian traders, Jews, devotees, pious and 



unclean, and Arabs, unclean without the 
recommendation of piety ; stragglers of 
all kinds bent on trade, and many with 
no bent at all. At Ramleh the trains 
of fruit-sellers on their road to the Holy 
City overtook me, the same picturesque 
troupes of men and boys, with the same 
trappings and packs, as the caravans 
that two thousand years ago went up 
from Ramleh to Jerusalem laden with 
fruit. Although the modern Ramleh is 
but a collection of dilapidated dwellings, 
yet the green fields and orchards which 
surround it perpetuate its ancient proto- 
type. But the charming reverie that this 
scene aroused was doomed to be abrupt- 
ly interrupted by a sudden turn of the 
road, bringing me in full view of an 
extensively-equipped tourists' encamp- 
ment. Attendants were madly rushing 
to and fro carrying dainty dishes into a 
grand marquee, each provided with a 
napkin slung over the arm, in emulation 
of the true Parisian style. I would have 
fled from this disenchantment of my 
dreams, but for the misfortune of being 
recognized by one of the party of tour- 
ists, an English gentleman who remem- 
bered having met me in Alexandria, 
and insisted upon my joining his friends. 
I was forthwith introduced to a very 
agreeable company of Englishmen, army 
officers on leave of absence from the 
British garrison at Malta. These luxu- 
rious picnickers had established quite 
an encampment, with their grand tent 
and tributary cooking and servants' 
tents, whilst a lynx-eyed but obsequious 
dragoman administered the whole with 
a delicious air of satisfaction. With the 
announcement "Z.? souper est servi, 
messieiirs,'' he ushered us into the mar- 
quee, where we found an ample table 
covered with a swan-white cloth, upon 
which an elaborate service was spread. 
Around the table the party disposed 
themselves, some on iron bedsteads, 
others on camp-stools. Imagine dining 
a la Russe in the land of Canaan ! 
The anomaly was almost too much for 
my nerves, and this recurred to me with 
increasing force at each successive pop 
of the champagne corks. I glanced fur- 
tively through the tent door and looked 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



243 



out into the distance in vain for my pic- 
turesque fruit-sellers. I listened for the 
tinkling of their mule-bells in the hope 
of catching some of the harmony that 
my present situation had broken. But 
all in vain : the evening shades had 
closed rapidly upon the scene, and noi- 
some petroleum lamps were brought 
forth. Through the vigilant providence 
of that pink of all courtesy, the drago- 
man, "cafe noir a la Turc" was served 
in Parisian po7'celain ctips, and a gen- 
eral parade of cigars, meerschaums, 
hookahs and nargilehs followed. The 
attempts to matriculate in Eastern styles 
of smoking were laudatory but ridic- 
ulous, and the water-pipes (nargilehs) 
gave forth bubble-bubble, toil and trou- 
ble. Conversation grew, and the coffee 
suffused the most delightful temper 
through the company. So let this pic- 
ture of happy sociality be wrapped up 
and dissolved in the curling smoke and 
evening shade. 

At early dawn I parted from my epi- 
curean hosts, and once again resumed 
my journey toward the Holy City. I 
had not proceeded far ere I overtook a 
motley caravan straggling along, some 
members of it walking and others riding 
on donkeys. They proved to be Rus- 
sian pilgrims on their way to the shrines 
in the Holy City. I recollected their 
recent arrival in a Russian steamer at 
Jaffa. Each devotee carried at his 
back a brass kettle for tea-making, 
which appeared to be indispensable, 
from the large supplies of really fine 
Souchong with which each pilgrim was 
provided. They steeped tea like true 
connoisseurs and after the manner of 
tea-merchants. Spreading some leaves 
in a small bowl, they poured boiling 
water from their brass kettle upon them. 
Their manner of drinking this decoc- 
tion struck me as rather original : hold- 
ing the bowl of tea in the left hand, they 
scooped up a handful of dirty-looking 
sugar with the right ; so that every sip 
from the left was followed by a munch 
from the right. I mingled for a while 
among these Greek devotees, whom I 
found degraded by superstition and as- 
tonishingly ignorant. One of their num- 



ber, who spoke tolerable French, court- 
eously offered me a bowl of tea, but I 
was careful to decline some crunched 
sugar proffered by a hand unwashed 
since the departure of its owner from 
Russia. 

In pursuing my journey I was after- 
ward met by other travelers, native and 
foreign, whose salaams I returned with 
all the dignity I could affect, somewhat 
impaired by a sense of the absurdity of 
going through all the flourishes of an 
Eastern salutation in a checked cloth 
American riding-suit. The dignified 
sweep in keeping with the graceful folds 
and curves of the Oriental garb is im- 
possible in the tight-fitting sleeves and 
other irregularities of European dress. 
This consideration of the subject of 
dress led me to reflect upon the com- 
fortless and inconvenient character of 
European dress in the East. He who 
would carry a free lance there must give 
up all thraldom to national dress if he 
would avoid persecution, annoyance and 
perpetual payment of backsheesh. I 
made, therefore, a resolve that I would 
at once cast off my American citizen's 
dress, and with it all my national prej- 
udices. I decided to become "one of 
them," to see with their eyes, eat from 
their dish and sleep under their tents. 
The adoption of this method would, I 
was convinced, introduce me to much 
novel experience, and would disclose to 
me original material for observation 
which would be shut against the general 
traveler who did not thus sink his indi- 
viduality. I determined, therefore, to 
request my friend, Haroun-er-Rhamond 
of Jerusalem, to purchase for me an Ori- 
ental outfit, habited in which I would 
proceed on my wanderings in the Jordan 
Valley. 

Once within the gates of Jerusalem, I 
am met by that scene so often described, 
that strange experience to the eyes and 
ears of a foreigner — an Oriental city. 
The fast-declining light rendered the 
dark, narrow streets almost obscure. 
After struggling through the throng of 
camel-drivers, mule-teamsters and fel- 
lahin unloading, and as a matter of 
course all screaming together, I ad- 



244 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



vanced'into the city through some deep 
arched streets, saluted at intervals by 
the shriek of a camel-driver as he 
swerved his huge animal down some 
narrow causeway, while the sharp bark 
of the ubiquitous dogs pierced the air 



above the indescribable din or murmur 
of sounds that rises from an Eastern 
city at dawn and at sundown. The 
people were streaming into the city in 
anticipation of the closing of the gates. 
It was just that moment when an East- 




CLOSING THE GATES. 



ern city arouses from its normal lethargy 
and indulges in a temporary bustle. But 
my way was not that of the throng, and 
1 turned down a narrow, gloomy arched 
street, on doing which I almost fancied 
ihat my mule quickened his pace, but 



this must have been a delusion. Any- 
how, ere I had checked the animal, it 
pulled up suddenly before a shabby, 
tumble-down, low-arched door, built in 
a lofty beethng wall. Whilst alighting 
I noted that the din of the city had now 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



■mJll 
l|P|p/ 





J ^ . - 







*JLV. . 



tl\ 




4^v 






'■^C r^ 



















'^;.i:. 



ll''l' 



246 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



subsided, and, except the howling of 
the dogs, all appeared to be wrapped 
in sudden silence. It was the hour 
of prayer. Soon my ears caught the 
strains of the muezzins singing the 
"call to prayer" from the balconies of 
the mudnehs (minarets). First the plain- 
tive voice of an aged singer chanted in 
murmuring cadence the opening exulta- 
tion : "Al-la-hoo ak-bar ! Al-la-hoo ak- 
bar !" ("God is great! God is great!") 
This strain was echoed from another 
minaret by a rich tenor voice, and then 
from the tower near the governor's 
house, calling the faithful to prayer. 

Haroun-er-Rhamond, I knew, was a 
faithful Moslem, so I waited until the 
last muezzin had finished his solo, which 
he did with a grand ralentando. I found 
the door of my friend's dwelling closed, 
the hole of the lock being covered, and 
the cumbersome cross-shaped piece of 
wood that has done service for a lock 
from time immemorial secured for the 
night. I banged lustily, shouting, "Yah ! 
yah!" and making all the hullabaloo 
customary in the East. My banging 
without soon called forth shoutings with- 
in, and after sundry explanations and 
expletives the lock was drawn and the 
opening disclosed. The cumbersome 




HAROUN AT PRAYER. 

wooden door turned upon its creaking 
hinges, and a lazy-looking slave ap- 
peared, to whom I said, "Go tell thy 
master that his friend the Scribe waits 
to be blessed by his, presence." He 



salaamed profoundly, and, leading away 
my mule, motioned toward his master, 
whom I observed finishing off his prayers 
with the concluding rekah or prostration 
as he stood in a recess facing the east 
in a recumbent position, each hand rest- 
ing above the knee. Then falling gently 
upon his knees, he turned his head sol- 
emnly over his right shoulder, and quick- 
ly gave a half nod " over the left." The 
Mohammedan religion teaches that there 
is a guardian angel at each shoulder, 
the one on the right recording the good 
deeds, whilst the one on the left takes 
down the evil deeds. 

Whilst Haroun was concluding his 
reverent genuflections I looked around 
me, and indulged in the contemplation 
of the strange contrast between the out- 
side and inside of a rich man's house 
in the East. Without, were the narrow 
gloomy alley, the high dreary wall, the 
clumsy broken-down door that would be 
but an indifferent entrance to a pig-stye ; 
within, were an exquisitely spacious court 
paved in checkered marble, and in the 
centre a refreshing fountain-basin, whose 
jet of limpid water rose and fell with a 
soothing, indolent murmur. In the rear 
was the Moresque-arched corridor or 
soofah, overhanging lattice windows^ 
carved in elegant arabesque tracery, 
rich pendent draperies from them add- 
ing their color to the pleasing picture. 
There is always, to me, a touch of en- 
chantment, a ghmpse of the Arabian 
Nights, in this entrance from a shabby 
causeway to Oriental luxury. Haroun,. 
having at length concluded his devo- 
tions, entered a long chamber with a 
divan at one end : he had been inform- 
ed of my arrival, and awaited my en- 
trance. Eastern life may be compared 
to still water that is occasionally agitated 
by a stone being thrown into it : there 
is a grand splash, perturbation, bubbles, 
and then the stagnant water, weighted 
by its weeds, returns to its normal still- 
ness. The Mohammedans are slaves to- 
form and punctilio, and the dramatic 
fervor of the Oriental, which is exhibit- 
ed in the ordinary actions of life, has 
degenerated into tedious theatrical dis- 
play. The natural and spontaneous ac- 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



247 



tipns of life are directed by a religious 
regime, and habits of antiquity that 
would now be obsolete anywhere else 
are jealously retained and dignified into 
religious ritual. My friend Haroun, 
although quite an exception among 
Moslems in education and liberality of 
thought, was no exception in this matter, 
and pursued etiquette with punctilious 
exactitude. He rose from his divan . at 
my approach to do me especial honor, 
and although a fortnight had barely 
elapsed since our last meeting, yet we 
rushed into each other's arms, leaning 
first to the right and then to the left : 
then he seized me by the hand, bringing 
the palms together and grasping my 
thumb, which he wrenched backward 
and forward, exclaiming, or rather shout- 
ing, "Sel 'a 'mat — Tei 'yebeen " ("I 
hope you are well or safe ") over and 
over again. To all such ejaculations 
you have to be ready with your reply. 
Indeed, so great is the excitement "got 
up " for these occasions that you become 
absolutely warmed up to your work. 
My friend continued to shout with gusto, 
sometimes gasping forth the exclamation, 
" Ow-hash-'tene !" (" Thou hast made us 
desolate by thine absence"). Then, as 
customary, he proceeded with compli- 
mentary interrogations as to my rela- 
tives, none of whom he had ever heard 
of. What appears perhaps most comical 
to the foreigner is the sudden manner 
in which the Orientals decline into their 
normal dignified apathy after these ex- 
uberant exhibitions of feeling. After all, 
anything is a Godsend for whiling away 
the long weary hours in that hot climate, 
where thinking is a labor and a bore. 

Upon entering a house the ancient 
custom should be observed of removing 
the shoes or the outer shoes ; but as 
that would have reduced me to my 
socks,, and as, moreover, the unlacing 
of heavy gaiter-boots of European man- 
ufacture would have been ridiculous, I 
entered my friend's presence shod. I 
was at his house a privileged guest : 
nevertheless, I avoided stepping on the 
small carpets that were spread here and 
there. My friend conducted me to the 
divan to the right, and he squatted upon 



the crimson silk cushions a la Turc, 
while I seated myself after the manner 
of Europeans. Servants came in with 
chibooks, and coffee was served, Arab 
fashion, in sinall porcelain egg-shaped 
cups enclosed in metallic holders of fil- 
agree-work. Washing of hands and all 
other processes necessary to be observed 
were gone through, whilst a nimble-fin- 
gered boy undid my shoestrings, which 
were only replaced years after. 

Haroun willingly offered to go with 
me to the bazaar, and to undertake the 
commission of purchasing a full Oriental 
suit, as otherwise I should expose my- 
self to be cheated ; but with the Eastern 
spirit of procrastination he suggested 
that a few days' time would make no 
difference : moreover, he desired to be 
gladdened by the light of my counte- 
nance. After more mutual admiration 
and complimenting, finding me firm in 
my purpose to depait on the morrow, 
he concluded to accompany me to the 
bazaar early the next morning. Having 
settled the business, we chatted and puff- 
ed the pipes of peace. A recherche supper 
was served in Eastern style upon a small 
octagonal stand that looked more like a 
footstool than a table. The innovation of 
imported French wines graced the repast, 
but my host, being a true follower of Mo- 
hammed, only sipped his sherbet and left 
the unbeliever to enjoy his generosity. 

The fatigues of the past two days in- 
troduced me to a most delightful sleep, 
from which 1 was 
awakened by the bus- 
tling of the pigeons 
against my latticed 
window. The sun 
had long risen, and 
the city was in com- 
motion. I found my 
friend awaiting me to 
do the honors of the 
house by offering the 
first repast, which in 
the East is a light one. 
The principal dish 
was, as is customary, 
honey and butter, but 
the cunning hand of 
the Armenian cook 




" ORANGEES ! 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



had provided a well-milled cup of choco- 
late, a luxury imported for Frankish 




WASHING FEET. 

guests. Such a breakfast would have 
been despatched at home in fifteen min- 
utes : I considered myself fortunate in 
having meandered through its courses 
in an hour, when, at the expiration of 
this time, servants trotted in with the in- 
dispensable pipes and coffee ; after which 
Haroun arose, a servant brought in his 
abba or cloak, and we went forth on our 
errand, followed by the lazy-looking at- 
tendant to carry home our purchases. 

On emerging from the mean causeway 
on to the main street a most varied and 
picturesque scene was presented. Here 
was a person of importance in rich cos- 
tume walking along with dignity ; there 
was a party of staring tourists ; then the 
eye caught successively Greek monks, 
devotees, fellahin, richly-costumed slaves 
— some riding on camels, others on asses 
— with a mingling of strange cries and a 
background of a Saracenic fountain rich 
with carved stone ornaments. 



At the corner of a street was a solemn- 
looking fellow with what appeared to be 
a sack slung under 
his arm, crying in a 
mournful voice " Mo- 
yah! moyah !" This 
was the sakis carry- 
ing his goat-skin of 
water, which was 
served in a brass cup 
he held in his hand. 
Notwithstanding the 
recent improvement 
in the water-supply of 
Jerusalem through the 
magnificent liberality 
of that queen of phil- 
anthropists, Miss Bur- 
dett-Coutts, so deep- 
rooted are customs in 
the East that the wa- 
ter-carrier can still ply 
a good business. Then 
arose another cry, "Or- 
angees! orangees!" 
coming from a poorly 
but picturesquely clad 
girl, selling large, lus- 
c i o u s Jaffa oranges. 
She held them in a 
graceful and statu- 
esque manner, but the cry she made was 
a kind of nasal squeal of most inhar- 
monious sound. Before a khati or coffee- 
house was a group that suggested many 
biblical pictures. A traveler was crouch- 
ed upon the ground whilst a boy washed 
his feet. A fine bearded old Moslem 
was engaged in going through the chap- 
ter of Oriental complimentary inquiries 
as to his friend the traveler's relatives 
and his journey. Again I observed the 
force of custom, for although water in 
Jerusalem is now comparatively abun- 
dant, yet the attendant followed the 
habit founded on its scarcity by drib- 
bling out a few drops at a time from a 
small antique earthenware cruse. As 
we entered the bazaar the throng of peo- 
ple compressed into such confined cause- 
ways became quite dense, and the noise 
fearful, whilst a general chattering arose 
from either side. Here my friend Ha- 
roun met his business-agent, an Arme- 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



249 



nian, a shrewd, obsequious, but fox-eyed- 
looking fellow, attired in what appeared 
to be a very long dressing-gown with a 
narrow standing collar, and a very tall, 
queer-looking cap. Haroun asked the 
fox - eyed - looking lawyer whether his 
Frankish friend's firman had yet been 
made out. I had many days previously 
requested friend Haroun to procure me 
a firman or passport, which the Arme- 
nian coolly informed us had been in 
preparation since that time, and was still 
in the hands of the scribe. To be in a 
hurry in the East is to make yourself 
ridiculous — to exhibit the slightest vexa- 
tion or impatience is worse still. That 
delays are dangerous never enters the 
Oriental mind ; and whereas it is with 
us a matter of difficulty to find time 
enough, in the East all the difficulty is 
to kill time. I greatly feared that this 
was but the precursor of a series of de- 
lays which, although disconcerting to 
me, seemed to be perfectly en 7-egle to 
my friend. Giving a parting injunction 
to the fox -eyed Armenian to induce 
some despatch in the scribe, we pro- 
ceeded to purchase the garments that 
were to convert me into an Arab. 

An Oriental bazaar is a wonderful 
place to a stranger — a masquerade in 
which all is real, a constantly -moving 
panorama of strange life, a stream of 
ever-varying color. Around me were 
Arabs and Turks, northern Syrians, 
with their fur-lined jackets, Jews in 
black, Armenians in blue, Latin and 
Greek monks, priests and parsons, whose 
white chokers and black cloth were crop- 
ping up everywhere, tourists of all na- 
tionalities gaping and staring, and a 
legion of humanity too numerous and 
varied for description. Each shop was 
like a little stand or box, divided from 
its neighbor by a rail. The largest por- 
tion of available space in these queer 
little open shops appeared to be appro- 
priated by the proprietors, who smoked 
and sipped coffee in the imperturbable 
manner of the East, apparently utterly 
indifferent to their interest until you 
came to the bargaining, when they 
proved to be wide awake and sharp 
enough. These merchants never stir 



from the divan upon which they squat. 
Their stock in trade is so carefully pack- 
ed and parceled as to appear very scanty. 
With one of these my friend Haroun 
now disputed over the price of a turban- 
cloth for me, whilst the merchant, to 
gain temporary advantage by delay, 




THE ARMENIAN. 

was offering his customer coflee and a 
pipe. 

We at last left the bazaar and arrived 
at the stall or office of the scribe. After 
much circumlocution and a liberal gurg- 
ling of the hookah, the venerable-look- 
ing sage fumbled in an antique clasped 
trunk in front of him, out of which he 
brought two or three heavy reed pens 
looking like sticks, a knife, a pair of 
scissors to trim the edges of the paper, 
and a vessel of ink of a gummy, viscid 
character. The paper is very thick, 



25° 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 




mostly of Venetian or Parisian manufac- 
ture, heavily glazed. A strip or spatula 
of ivory is used to trim the nibs of the reed, 
as we trim quill pens on our thumb 
nails. Finally, he brought forth my 
firman, a very imposing -looking 
affair, commencing with the usual 
form, "In the name of God the 
merciful," etc., and terminating 
with a grand flourish, which I 
supposed was a signature, but 
which was really the date, reck- 
oned from the flight of Moham- 
med. The signature and seal are 
always at the top of the page or 
instrument, and suggest the tracks 
of some lively insect : in this case 
it was a tremendous seal that 
would have crowded out the bar- 
ons of Magna Charta. The im- 
portance attached to the seal, the 
sign-manual, is greater than that 
of the actual signature, and p, 
signet-ring wrapped in a dirtv 
piece of rag is guarded with jeal- 
ous care by every Arab sheik. 
After paying sundry fees and 



charges, and making a present 
of backsheesh, we obtained pos- 
session of the firman and bent 
our steps homeward. With much 
readiness I cast away my Eu- 
ropean clothes, and by the assist- 
ance of two servants, who both 
jabbered away at the same time, 
I learned my first lesson of how to 
dress in Eastern style. The dif- 
ficulty of fitting on the garm.ents 
is not very great, as they are all 
roomy, and but for the length of 
the libas a man might dress in 
woman's clothes or a woman in 
man's. Upon presenting myself 
to my friend he seemed much 
delighted and amused, especial- 
ly at my aAvkward manner of 
squatting, which had the effect 
of twisting my legs so that I was 
seized with cramp. He was kind 
enough to teach me how to squat, 
smoke, eat and salute like a gen- 
uine Mohammedan. My mule 
was ordered to be in readiness 
on the morrow to conduct me 
out of the city, to start on my journey 
to Succoth by Bethel and Shechem. 
After a good night's rest and a de- 




THE SCRIBE. 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



251 



lightful repast, over which we lingered 
for nearly two hours, I parted from Ha- 
roun, first thanking him cordially for 
his hospitality and kind attentions. Be- 
sides a pack on the mule, I cloaked my- 
self in my abba and girded up my loins, 
placing all my extra luggage in the 
folds. An Arab will often carry all his 
personal effects within the folds of his 
abba, held in this receptacle by the . 
girdle or cord which gathers the cloak 
around the waist. My mule-pack con- 
tained a blanket, a cooking-apparatus, 
a heavy camel's-hair tent-cloth, with its 




cords, nails and short sticks lashed to 
the animal's back. I was already some- 
thing of a campaigner — could pitch my 
own tent, cook my dinner and turn in 
snugly, independent of Arabs and all 
other torments. I carried no arms for 
personal defence. The absurd manner 
in which every tourist, lay and clerical, 
arms himself with a revolver, invites 
and courts the dangers that would be 
avoided by a more peaceful demeanor. 
I now left Jerusalem by the Damas- 
cus gate, having passed through the 
thronged streets unnoticed, although an 



;X- 




object of the most absorbing attention 
to myself. My road extended straight 
before me, in the direction of Nablous. 
The vernal tints of the not too abun- 
dant foliage lent an agreeable aspect to 
what would otherwise have been an 
uninteresting country, but the heat was 
oppressive, and the dusty thorn-bushes 
that bestrewed the pathway rendered 
traveling still more tedious. Bethel 
was only a ten-mile ride, but it was late 
in the afternoon ere I ascended the 
low-browed hill and entered the village, 
which lies somewhat off the direct road. 
These ancient villages are places to be 



avoided by travelers, owing to the ex- 
ceeding uncleanliness of the inhabitants 
and their abodes. I therefore selected a 
station on rising ground, near the ruins 
of an old tower in the outskirts. Some 
Arab tents were clustered hard by, but 
my seclusion was sufficiently secured, 
and I proceeded to pitch my tent, com- 
mitting so many blunders in the course 
of the operation that had my neighbors 
caught sight of me, I should at once 
have been recognized as a stranger in 
the land, and singled out for back- 
sheesh. 

At daybreak I resumed my journey, 



252 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



still east of the road to Nablous. On 
approaching Shiloh the country became 
more varied and picturesque, and the 
people somewhat more curious and im- 
pertinent. Shiloh is now called Seilun. 
Nothing remains of this interesting site 
but some scattered ruins amidst the 



broken ground. There must have been 
a time when the surrounding hills were 
leveled into terraces and richly cul- 
tivated, but now they are barren, 
ohve trees alone peeping up here and 
there. 

Another encampment was followed by 




further wanderings, which brought me 
to a region more fertile and picturesque, 
where many caravans and travelers, as 
well as shepherds with their flocks, were 
pushing on toward Nablous. Same 
groups of travelers had halted at a spot 
for which I had been on the lookout. 
It was Jacob's Well, and thither I now 



directed my mule. A few scattered 
stones are all that indicate the former 
existence of a constructed well, but it is 
generally admitted that this is the spot 
spoken of as Jacob's Well in the fourth 
chapter of the Gospel of St. John. The 
question will occur to any visitor why 
the patriarch should have sunk this 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE 



253 



ii' 

4 




fir 



254 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



deep well when there was abundant 
water at hand a little to the west; and 
the most plausible explanation seems to 
be that the water, however abundant, 
was regarded as private property, and 
its use jealously restricted. 

As the sun was fast dedining, I pur- 
sued my journey, watching the long 
shadows of a caravan of camels in ad- 
vance. Isolated huts now appeared, 
giving evidences of the approach to a 
city. Outside one of these an Arab 
woman appeared in the distance to be 



violently shaking some animal sus- 
pended by the neck from a vine fence. 
Knowing the barbarity sometimes prac- 
ticed by the natives, I approached the 
hut, and found to my satisfacdon that 
what I had mistaken for an animal was 
merely a skin filled with milk, and that 
the woman was churning in the mode 
practiced by her ancestors thousands of 
years ago. The butter thus procured is 
a horrible substitute for the real article. 
In winter it is of the consistency of 
honev, and in the summer of oil : the 





V 



olive oil, fresh and s\*e^,-'rs always more 
acceptable. 

A sharp turn of the hill, and I was 
looking down upon the lovely valley of 
Mukhna, with Shechem at the farther 
end, steeped in the rich tints of the set- 
ting sun, and flanked by purple fringes 
of hills and the green and brown sides 
of Gerizim. This valley is unsurpassed 
for loveliness, its beauty being enhanced 
by the surrounding barrenness. It lies 
eighteen hundred feet above the sea- 
level, and cooling breezes are wafted 
over it in the most sultrv weather. It 



is filled with fair gardens and orchards, 
and watered by streamlets from no less 
than eighty fountains. The olive, pome- 
granate and fig tree crop up everywhere, 
and the verdure of the fields throws into 
relief the numerous clusters of dwell- 
ings that stud the vale : " a watered gar- 
den, a spring of water that faileth not." 
(Isaiah Iviii. ii.) 

Nablous boasts of a considerable cot- 
ton crop, which brought a large price 
during the immense demand for cotton 
occasioned by our war. This gave an 
impetus to the community which has 



WANDERINGS IN PAIESTINE. 



255 



been creditably sustained. The city is 
a very ancient one, alleged, on what 
seems sufficient evidence, to be identical 
with the Shechem of the Bible. It lies 
on the slope of the valley formed by 
Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Shechem 
was one of the cities of refuge, and 
it was here that the people assembled 
to hear the law of Moses read, 
"half of them over against 
Gerizim, and half of them 
over against Mount Ebal." 
At the point where this mass- 
meeting was held the valley 
is not fifteen hundred feet 
wide. The city is a straggling 
one, built along the base of 
Gerizim : its streets are ex- 
ceedingly narrow and rugged, 
and in the rainy season tor- 
rents run through its narrow 
causeways. The inhabitants 
are unusually active for Ori- 
entals. Weavers are busily at 
work, and fragrant odors are 
borne upon the air, emanating 
fi-om orange and other fruit 
trees cultivated amongst the 
houses. 

After leaving Nablous the 
country soon became wilder 
and traveling more difficult. 
At length tl^e Joi'dan was sight- 
ed, like a silver thread in the 
distance, far down in its quiet 
valley. 

The most remarkable fea- , 
ture of Palestine is the valley 
of the Jordan, which extends like a deep 
ditch from the foot of Hermon south to 
the Dead Sea, continuing in the valley 
of the Arabah to the Red Sea at Aka- 
bah. It has a uniform width of about 
ten miles, and is everywhere below the 
ocean-level, reaching its lowest depth at 
the Dead Sea, which, rising or falling 
with the rainy or dry season, has an 
average level of 1312 feet below that of 
the ocean. The appearance of the whole 
is that of a plain worn into rounded knolls 
by water from the upper regions of Sa- 
maria and Gilead. The strata exposed 
in the water-worn torrent-beds are lime- 
stone, rolled boulders, pebbles of flinty 



sandstone, tufas, marl, chalky deposits or 
pure chalk, conglomerates, sand, grav- 
el, clay and detritus. The lower terrace 
is luxuriant in vegetation, producing a 
great variety of trees, plants, flowers and 
grasses. South of Masada these knolls 
are left by the elements in tall conical 
pinnacles, suggesting works of art. 




WOMAN CHURNING. 

Bitumen is drawn up from wells one 
hundred and eighty feet deep, near Has- 
beiya, on the Upper Jordan, and masses 
are found along the shore in which peb- 
bles of all kinds are thickly embedded. 
It is also found floating on the bay south 
of Lisan, where it is supposed to rise 
from the bottom after earthquakes, which 
are frequent in that region. Bituminous 
shales and springs impregnated with 
bitumen occur in the wadys all around 
the sea. Sulphur is found in the plain 
of Jericho and nearly all around the 
Dead Sea, and it appears also in the 
hot springs of Callirhoe (Herod's resort) 
and at Tiberias, as well as in many 



2^6 



WANDERINGS IN PALESTINE. 



>rf^ i>^ 



small springs on the west shore of the 
sea. 

Succoth is a type of the scenery o'f the 
Upper Jordan. It was here that the sa- 
cred vessels of the Temple were cast, 
moulds being made in the deep clay 
banks between Succoth and Zarthan, 



whence now a very fine and hard clay 
is carried to Damascus and other cities 
for use in casting metals. 

The scenery along the banks of the 
Jordan is now and then striking, and 
sometimes, where a wide bend of the 
rive/ affords a bit of open water fringed 




SHECHEM. 



with foliage, is quite beautiful, and would 
be enjoyable if it were not for the intense 
heat of the sun. It is no wonder that the 
five Cities of the Plain were destroyed 
by fire, for everything is so hot and dry 
that one spark of fire would set the 
whole in a blaze. 

My pilgrimage ended at the head of 
the Red Sea, near the tongue of land 
which reaches out into the water to a 
pile of loose stones, sometimes described 
as a ruined city. It might have been a 
rude fort, like those in the lakes near 
Damascus, but there are no wrought 
stones visible. At high water the tongue 
is covered and the heap of stones forms 
an island. 



There was one strange experience on 
that visit to this dry and burnt district : 
not a human being was visible for the 
whole day, and no fires, indicating camps, 
were seen at night. In the whole range 
of my journey I found no more desolate 
and utterly deserted place. In no other 
locality under heaven is there so pecu- 
liar and affecting a spot from which to 
view the rising or setting sun as on the 
north bay of the Dead Sea. The tall 
ranges of mountains close to the wate? 
on either side, the deep hot valley, the 
quiet glassy lake, the strange history of 
the place, combine to flood the soul with 
profound and unspeakable emotions. 



